Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa today launched 10-km stretch of the first phase of the Chennai Metro via videoconferencing.
The 10-km overhead metro stretch will connect Alandur in south Chennai to Koyabedu in the north and will be covered in 18 minutes.
Chennai Metro had missed several deadlines before finally being opened to public.
Being built at a cost of over Rs 14,000 crore, phase-1 of the Chennai Metro Rail would cover a 45-km stretch in the city.
Designed as half underground and the rest elevated, one corridor is between Washermanpet and Airport and the other, from Chennai Central to St. Thomas Mount.
The portions from Washermanpet to Saidapet on Anna Salai in corridor I and the portions from Chennai central to Thirumangalam in corridor II will be underground and the remaining portions will be elevated.
Last year, Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu had said the Centre had approved an extension of a nine-km stretch upto Thiruvottiyur from Washermenpet under phase-I of the project in North Chennai.
Launch of Chennai Metro Rail between Koyambedu and Alandur was scheduled to be operational by October last year.
However, it did not happen.
Venkaiah Naidu had said last year that the project between the Koyambedu-Alandur stretch will be launched by March 2015.
