The Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) project, which has been making steady progress all along, has now fallen behind schedule with tunneling works of the underground section of the project being deferred by a month.
The tunnel boring machines (TBM), which were to start dredging work by early March at Shenoy Nagar and Washermenpet, would now be put to use only by mid April.
Senior CMRL sources told Deccan Chronicle that the postponement of tunnel boring work was because of minor delay in construction of diaphragm walls for the underground stretches.
Diaphragm wall construction is in progress at Washermenpet, High Court, Egmore, May Day Park, Nehru Park, KMC, Shenoy Nagar, Anna Nagar Tower, Thirumangalam and Saidapet ramp area.
The huge TBMs are now being assembled at the dredging sites in Washermenpet and Shenoy Nagar.
TBM’s meant for Nehru Park would arrive at the end of this month, while the first set of TBMs meant to take up dredging at Saidapet have completed factory acceptance test and are expected to arrive by the later half of March.
CMRL has floated global tenders for Rs 7.5 crore for its operation and maintenance services for Phase-I of the project.
Bidders should have experience in operating mass rapid transit system with a total route length of at least 25 km and with at least 5 km being underground.
Experience in operating minimum frequency of at least 10 trains per peak hour would also be required, said the bid document.
