Chennai Metro Rail's 1.96-km Light House-Thirumayilai line's Flamingo tunnelling project gets underway

The tunnel boring machine (TBM) named "Flamingo" that was placed at Marina Beach next to the Light House started off slowly on Friday. As part of the Chennai Metro Rail's phase II project, it will be necessary to dig under difficult soil conditions and beneath several historic buildings, including a 300-year-old mosque at Kutchery Road, in order to lay the 1.96 km underground line between Light House and Thirumayilai. With a length of 416 metres and a width of 35 metres, the Light House Metro Rail station will be the longest when completed. It can hold 3,000 commuters at once.

In contrast to other subterranean stations, the Thirumayilai station's platform would be on the first level while the concourse or ticketing level will be on the second, according to representatives of Chennai Metro Rail Ltd. (CMRL). It will be able to hold 12 trains because it is a terminal station on the Light hold-Poonamallee route, eliminating the need to transport them daily from Poonamallee depot.

 According to Mr. Archunan, permission from the Coastal Regulation Zone has been secured to establish this station.

As part of the 61,843 crore phase II project, 23 TBMs will operate together to build the city's subterranean network along three corridors: Madhavaram to SIPCOT (corridor 3), Light House to Poonamallee (corridor 4), and Madhavaram to Sholinganallur (corridor 5). Flamingo is the first TBM to be launched for the Thirumayilai-Lighthouse Line corridor in phase II of the project. This corridor is a component of Corridor 4. In the corridor 4, four TBMs will be constructing a 10-km subterranean network. The geological characteristics on this length make tunnelling likely to be rather difficult, according to the officials.