Now, CMRL or Chennai Metro Rail Limited is busy with the stacked design of metro construction in the corridor-4. The work is now going at full speed. This has caught the attention. It is learnt that the construction of the diaphragm walls in corridor 4 is going on. This was mentioned by some officials belonging to CMRL.
Information is that each metro station on Kutchery Road, Alwarpet, Bharathidasan Road, Thirumayilai and Pattalam is being constructed underground and would have 3 levels respectively stacked over one another. It was later pointed out by the officials of CMRL that in the stacked metro stations in places like Thirumayilai and in Pattalam the mobilisation work was in the initial stages.
Trenching and utility identification works are being carried out now for the corridor 3 stacked metro stations. It must be noted that the stacked design for the metro stations are present in countries like China and Spain etc. The construction of the 5 metro stations mentioned above is being carried out by ITD Cementation India, Tata projects and Rail Vikas Nigam.
Reason for CMRL to adopt stacked design construction:
Truth is that the stacked design construction is a one-of-kind construction in India. The lack of space in places like Kutchery Road and Mylapore etc has been the reason why CMRL adopted this stacked design construction. As per a CMRL official it was confirmed that first lower slab would be constructed and then it would be carried upwards. He spoke about how by design the metro station at Thirumayilai was deepest in phase-2 construction that is 35m.
It would not be easy to construct stacked design metro stations in Chennai where the stations would not be parallel to each other. Information gathered is that the construction of the platforms would be carried out one above the other in vertical alignment.