Chennai Metro Plans Villivakkam Tunnel, Awaits Southern Railway Green Signal.

Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) is awaiting approval from Southern Railway to begin construction of an underground metro stretch between Villivakkam Bus Terminus and Villivakkam as part of its Phase II expansion. The agency has now escalated the matter to the Project Monitoring Group (PMG), a Union government body that helps resolve bottlenecks in major infrastructure projects.

The proposed section forms a small but crucial part of Corridor 5, which will connect Madhavaram and Sholinganallur under the Phase II network planned by CMRL.

Work on this stretch has fallen significantly behind schedule. The delay began after the first tender floated several years ago for the underground construction had to be cancelled when the bidder quoted prices considered excessively high.

With approvals still pending and earlier tendering issues slowing progress, the Villivakkam section remains one of the lagging components of the ambitious Corridor 5 project.