The 4.5-km Metro Rail work between Officer’s Training Academy (OTA) and Chennai airport has been put on fast track.
While phase I of the work between the Pallavaram end and the international terminal exit has already started, underground tunnelling work near the OTA will commence by mid-July, said a senior CMRL official.
“The underground stretch that is about a kilometre long will start from OTA and run parallel to the main runway before climbing at the Meenambakkam station, which will come up near the cargo terminal,” the official added.
He said the Metro would go to a depth of eight metres and added that the wire duct work from OTA and beyond the airport had already begun. “We have started the segment casting works at Tiruneermalai for the airport stretch,” he noted.
CMRL has entrusted the responsibility of the Metro station work inside the airport premises to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) which has already performed the ground breaking ceremony for the `60-crore project and started construction activities.
When contacted, airport director Mr H.S. Suresh said that the work would be completed in 14 months. “We will do the skeleton and hand over the building to the CMRL, who will complete it,” he added.
He, however, acknowledged that the phase I construction of Metro work from the Pallavaram side to the international exit would create a mess inside the airport.
“The service lane inside the airport will surely get affected. But then, we have to live with it till the completion of Metro works. It will take a minimum of two years,” he said.
“Already the GST Road near the airport is congested during peak hours and now with Metro works, we need to start early to catch our flights on time,” said Mr R. Arjun, a regular air passenger.