OREANDA-NEWS. March 1, 2011. The Consortium OJSC Mosmetrostroy—Gammon India Ltd. has been awarded two prestigious contracts of underground stations and associated tunnels for Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) amounting to Rs1947 crore. These contracts are part of the five tender packages(UAA-01 to UAA-05) floated by the CMRL for design and construction of underground stations and associated tunnels covering a total length of 18 km and 19 underground stations.

The scope of work for both packages involve construction of seven underground stations at Govt Estate (Secretariat), LIC building, Thousand light, Gemini, Teynampet, Chamiers road and Saidapet along with twin bored tunnels covering a total length of over 8.7 KM (8706 metres). Mosmetrostroy plans to start tunneling works in the middle of 2012.

Chennai is the fourth-largest city in India. It is a coastal city with the second largest

beach in the world. The climate is hot and humid but the breeze blowing from the sea makes the climate bearable. It is India’s major leather-producing center and the quality of leather compares with the finest in the world. The City with its present population of about 8 million generates about 11 million trips in a day, with about 6 million vehicular trips. The ever growing vehicular and passenger demands coupled with constraints on capacity augmentation of the existing network have resulted in chaotic condition during peak hours of the day.

Chennai Metropolis has been growing rapidly and the traffic volumes on the roads have also been increasing enormously. Hence the need for a new rail based rapid transport system has been felt. This project aims at providing the people of Chennai with a fast, reliable, convenient, efficient, modern and economical mode of public transport. This in turn will help in its efficient and proper integration with other forms of public and private transport including buses, sub-urban trains and MRTS. Overall the project will significantly help in the effective traffic management of the metropolis and provide much needed relief and convenience to the commuters in the city and the public at large.