Another setback for Chennai airport metro

CHENNAI: The Airport–Kilambakkam extension of Chennai metro rail has encountered another setback, with the Union ministry of housing and urban affairs (MoHUA) objecting to Tamil Nadu govt's submission of outdated documents for project approval.The 15.4-km corridor, estimated at 9,335 crore, is part of metro rail's phase I extension and is designed as a two-tier structure along GST Road an elevated road at level-1 and metro tracks at level-2.Despite state govt finally clearing the extension late April and submitting the proposal for central funding, a critical oversight stalled progress. On reviewing the detailed project report (DPR), Centre flagged that the comprehensive mobility plan (CMP) which outlines commuting patterns and justifies metro expansion was five years old and did not reflect Chennai's current traffic realities. MoHUA directed Tamil Nadu to update the CMP and resubmit it along with the DPR.Metro rail officials now say Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (CUMTA), a nodal govt agency to coordinate urban transport, is updating the CMP and that there would be no changes to the DPR's design.The project already faced delays due to multiple design revisions. Initially, the Airport–Kilambakkam corridor was envisioned as an 18-20-metre-high elevated metro line. That plan was derailed after the highways department proposed a parallel elevated road. A later redesign, with the metro at level-3 and the road at level-2, was dropped due to prohibitive costs. The current plan metro at level-2 and road at level-1 awaits Centre's nod.Residents say this isn't the first time CMRL's outdated submissions have cost time. "The same mistake happened with Madurai and Coimbatore feasibility reports. It shows negligence at the planning stage itself," said a Tambaram-based resident-activist Dayanand Krishnan. He added that MoHUA's quick detection within a month should pressure CMRL to act swiftly, as the extension has already been languishing since 2020.