By The Chennai Metro Rail project is growing every single day to help people travel faster and easier. Right now, there is a very big update about the new underground train paths. A giant machine that digs tunnels under the ground is getting ready to finish an important part of its journey. This machine is called a tunnel boring machine. The name of this special machine is Anaimalai. It has been digging a deep tunnel between two busy areas, Purasawalkam and Kellys.
The officials working for the Chennai Metro Rail Limited shared some very positive news. They expect this giant drilling machine to finally break through the wall at the Kellys station very soon. They believe this exciting moment will happen in the middle of May. This is a very important step for the Phase Two project of the Chennai Metro. When the machine breaks through the wall, it means the underground tunnel for this section is fully complete.
The journey for the Anaimalai machine has been quite long and a little bit difficult. It started its digging work way back in December of the year two thousand and twenty four. It began its trip from Purasawalkam, which is a very crowded and popular shopping place in the city. The machine slowly drilled its way through the earth toward the Kellys area. It worked very deep underground, about eighteen meters below the busy city streets. The soil down there is a mix of sand and sticky clay.
Even though the machine reached the outside of the Kellys station almost a year ago, it had to stop and wait. There were only about three hundred meters left to dig, but the machine could not finish the job. The Metro officials explained the main reason for this long delay. Before the machine can break through the final wall, the workers need to finish building a special structure called a shaft at the station. A shaft is a deep vertical hole or box built into the ground. They need this strong structure ready so they can safely pull the giant machine out of the earth once the tunnel is done.
Building this shaft took much longer than everyone thought it would. Another reason for the delay was that some local people living near the construction site were unhappy. Building a metro station requires large machines and can be very noisy and dusty. Some residents complained that the work was causing them too much trouble. Because of these complaints, the Metro officials had to pause their work to listen to the people and fix the problems. Thankfully, the officials say that all the issues with the local residents are now solved.
This specific tunnel is a very important piece of a much larger plan called Corridor Three. This long path stretches for more than forty five kilometers. It starts from Madhavaram and goes all the way down to SIPCOT in Siruseri. A large part of this corridor will run completely underground, passing through many crowded neighborhoods like Perambur, Otteri, and Kilpauk. After reaching a place called Nehru Nagar, the metro train will come above the ground and run on high bridges until the very end of the line.
Now that the shaft construction at Kellys is almost completely finished, the giant Anaimalai machine is ready to wake up and finish its job. The engineers are working hard to make sure everything is perfectly safe for the final breakthrough in May. When this happens, it will be a proud moment for the city of Chennai. It means the dream of a faster, cleaner, and less crowded travel system is one step closer to becoming a reality for everyone who lives there.
Chennai Metro Rail Limited is nearing completion of a కీల underground tunnel in Phase 2, as tunnel boring machine “Anaimalai” prepares to achieve a breakthrough at Kellys. The tunnel between Purasawalkam and Kellys is part of Corridor 3, a major 45+ km route. This milestone will significantly advance Chennai’s metro expansion, improving urban connectivity and reducing travel congestion.
