Tamil Nadu Govt presses Centre to clear the 2nd phase of Chennai Metro pending for five years

Tamil Nadu government has sought matching funds from the Centre for implementing the Rs 61,843 crore Chennai Metro Rail Phase II project as Chennai Metro Rail has become one of the lifelines for Chennaites. It has catered to 25 crore commuters so far.

Chief Minister M K Stalin requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi again seeking funds in a 50:50 ratio to implement the Phase-II project. Currently, the project is a state-funded project. The chief minister was sharing a dais with the Prime Minister

With the work on 120 kilometer second phase of Chennai Metro is in full swing with the help of funds provided by the Tamil Nadu government, the state’s plea for matching funds by the Union urban development ministry is pending for more than five years. At one stage the urban development ministry had asked the state government to cut down costs on the second phase. The state government pruned the project and sent a report promptly a few years ago. But nothing is heard from the Urban Development ministry which has sanctioned funds for several metro rail projects in Uttar Pradesh Maharashtra and Gujarat. The detailed project report of Coimbatore Metro is pending with the Union ministry for the past six years.

The first phase Chennai Metro has catered to 25 crore passengers. In 2023, Chennai Metro found a huge increase in the patronage with 9.11 crore passengers availing the services, according to data available from Chennai Metro.

Commencing its operations as part of the first phase on June 29, 2015. Chennai Metro catered to only 2.8 crore in the initial three years till December 31, 2018. The patronage increased during the year 2018 as it clocked 3.28 crore passengers annually but then there was a decline in the next two years.

During 2020, a total of 1.18 crore passengers availed the services while in 2021, a total of 2.53 crore passengers took to the metro. However, it was during the calendar years 2022 and 2023, the patronage peaked. In the year 2022, 6.09 crore passengers availed the Metro services while in 2023, a total of 9.11 crore people took to Metro, a release stated