Chennai Metro Rail on Saturday December 26 successfully held a trial run of diesel locomotive vehicles on the 9-km Washermenpet-Wimco Nagar metro stations stretch as part of the Phase-I extension. A CMRL statement said, “During the trial, the diesel locomotive vehicle completed its maiden run successfully. A total of 9.051 kms was covered on both upline and downline. The entire team of CMRL is enthused on this as it is a major lap in its footsteps".
The installation of various systems, including ballast-less track, overhead electrification, signalling, tunnel ventilation, HVAC, platform screen doors, automatic fare collection (AFC) gates, are currently under way in this stretch to achieve early commissioning, the statement said. It added that the trial run will pave the way for the CMRL’s plan for fully completing the entire Phase I extension works from Washermanpet to Tiruvottiyur (Wimco Nagar) covering 9.051 km with 8 Metro Stations (2 underground and 6 elevated Metro stations) will connect the northern part of the city to the Central Business District Area and is targeted to be opened for traffic by the end of January 2021.
The new extension line will have eight stations namely Sir Theagaraya College, Tondiarpet, Toll Gate, Thangal, Gowri Ashram, Tiruvottiyur and Wimco Nagar. The Metro had planned to open the Phase-1 extension stretch in 2020 but the work got hit by the COVID-19 lockdown. The work on the project was launched in 2016 at an estimated cost of Rs 3,770 crore.
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