Chennai Metro Rail service between AG-DMS and Washermenpet will be open for public in a month or two to significantly boost ridership in the network, said Pankaj Kumar Bansal, Managing Director, Chennai Metro Rail.

The remaining 9-km stretch in the last stretch of the first phase between Washermenpet and Wimco Nagar, on which work started in June 2016, will be operational by June 2020, Bansal said at the 3rd edition of CII Chennaiinfra 2018 with the theme Transforming Chennai, the Smart way.

When the first 10-km metro service started, the ridership was 8,000 a day; up to 20 km it was 12,000; up to 28 km it was 18,000 and at 35 km it was 55,000. The addition of another 10 km from AG-DMS to Washermenpet will multiply the ridership, he said.

As the metro keeps expanding, the ridership too will increase as was seen with Bengaluru metro, which saw a ridership of just 36,000 for a network of 36 km. However, when it was extended to 43 km, the ridership increased to nearly 3.5 lakh, he said.

On second phase of the 119-km Chennai Metro, Bansal said nearly 75 per cent of the funds for the project has been tied up with the Japanese funding agency. Soil testing is going on at various places and in a year, ground level work will begin. “By 2024, the 119-km network will be operational,” he said.

The second phase will have three stretches: Madhavaram to Siruseri; Light House to Meenakshi College; and Madhavaram to Shollinganallur, stretching from the IT corridor in the south of Chennai to the milk production centre in the northwest.

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