Chennai: Thirumayilai metro construction begins

CHENNAI: Construction has begun for the city’s deepest metro rail station, at Thirumayilai, from where passengers will board trains more than 100 feet below the road in four years. Officials said work on the peripheral walls or the station box around 35m below Luz Junction is on. The station will be an interchange of corridors 3 and 4 of phase-2 that is likely to open between 2025 and 2028.
“We have started construction of the station box.The station will be spread over 4,854.4 sqm under Luz junction with four tunnels stacked one above the other, planned due to the narrow width of the road,” an official said.
The diaphragm walls or peripheral walls are built by cutting through the soil and installing steel reinforcement followed by concreting. Usually, a station box takes nine-12 months to complete, but here, officials say, building the T-shape structure will be an engineering challenge as the soil is rocky.
There will be four levels including a ticketing or concourse level and a level for commercial developments, and three platforms. Trains on Madhavaram-Sipcot corridor-3 will be on level one at 17m and level three at 35m, while those on Lighthouse-Poonamallee corridor-4 will be on level two at 24m. Once the station box is ready, tunnelling will commence.
When the station opens, commuters from Madhavaram, Purasaiwalkam and the IT corridor on OMR can take a direct train to Mylapore. As corridor-4 from Lighthouse to Poonamallee is likely to be extended to the greenfield airport planned at Parandur, commuters can reach Mylapore from the airport too.
For Mylapore residents, the new station will help access most parts presently not easily accessible. “The nearest stations now are 2km-3km away. But Thirumayilai station, along with Alwarpet and Mandaveli, are close to many residential areas. Thirumayilai station will be less than 1km away and we can either take a two-wheeler or walk to the station,” said S Hemachandran, a Mylapore resident.