Chennai: Three months after it was grandly announced that metro rail travel would be the government’s gift to Chennaites this New Year, it is now clear that the inauguration of the Koyambedu-Alandur section will be delayed indefinitely. This delay is despite the fact that the Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) has completed all the necessary trial runs and done its final checks. The Commissioner of Railway Safety is due in the city next month for conducting a statutory inspection, following which the Ministry of Railways gives the green light.
“We are ready to run,” says CMRL project director R. Ramanathan. “Only external painting work of stations remains, which will be done closer to the actual inauguration.” And that is where the Metro rail has hit a red light. The government has not yet decided on when and who will inaugurate the much awaited project.
There has been no response to CMRL’s request for a date and time of inauguration so far. In September, Union urban development minister Venkaiah Naidu reviewed CMRL’s project implementation and said: “I hope by the advent of New Year, people of Chennai will be traveling by metro rail.”
