By Ashley Karen
Building twin tunnels to connect the T Nagar shopping hub with Anna Salai as part of the phase-2 metro rail project will start in August.
Two TBMs will be used to build twin tunnels from Panagal Park underground metro station to Nandanam underground metro station cutting across Venkatanarayana Road.
Both the stations are part of corridor-4 which would link Light House at Marina Beach with the Poonamallee bypass. As reported, CMRL will deploy 23 tunnel boring machines in total for constructing a 42.6km underground section in phase-2. The 118.9km phase-2 project will possibly be ready by 2026.
CMRL spokesperson, L Girirajan, claimed that building the periphery wall or D-wall of Panagal park metro station is in full swing, and underground utilities like EB cables, water, and sewer pipelines are being pivoted to organize the site for tunneling at Nandanam.
Girirajan said: “Tunnelling works will start at Panagal Park station around August 2023. The tunnel boring machines will proceed towards Nandanam.”
As officials claimed, the tunnels will be 15m deep in Panagal Park, an average of 20m depth in Venkatanarayana Road, and go as deep as 30m once it arrives at Nandanam junction. There, the tunnels will cross beneath the current phase-1 tunnels and move towards Chamiers Road. Furthermore, CMRL scrapped the plan to have a station near Natesan Park as the distance between the stations was less than 700m.
There might be more inconvenience for road users throughout the tunneling. Besides, two-lane roads will only be available along the entire stretch containing Venkatanarayana Road for vehicular movement, and only a footpath on one side of the road will be available for pedestrians.
However, as tunneling begins at Panagal Park metro, the station box or periphery walls of the Nandanam metro will be constructed. Nandanam metro will be located at the Nandanam junction – Venkatanarayana Road intersection and will be connected to the current phase-1 metro station to allow seamless movement for passengers.
Nevertheless, during the building of the Nandanam metro station, access to the current phase-1 station from T Nagar may be restricted as an entry/exit point to the station may be closed.
