The long wait for the residents of Chennai to travel by a metro is finally over. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa via video conferencing has launched the first phase of the Chennai metro rail today. Now along with New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Jaipur, the capital city of Tamil Nadu will also enjoy metro connectivity making travel easier.
After four long years of work, the metro line will connect Koyambedu to Alandur in South Chennai. The entire distance of 10 km will be covered in merely 18 minutes. In future, the metro line will most likely be connected to the airport as well.
The initial cost of the phase-1 project of 45 km and 32 stations was Rs. 14,600 crore. However, according to reports the cost has now increased to Rs. 20,000 crore. The minimum fare of travelling in the metro is Rs. 10 while the maximum has been fixed at Rs. 40. The capacity of each train is more than 1200 passengers.
This launch will be of great help to the residents of Chennai and will reduce the travel time by approximately 75 per cent. The project was expected to be launched in December 2013 itself, however, it was delayed by more than a year and a half due to many reasons.
During the initial stages, nine trains will be running between Alandur and Koyambedu in every 10 minutes. Also, the halt time at each station will be 30 seconds. In the stretch, the train will cover about nine stations.
Image Credit: newindianexpress.com
