Two crucial projects to be developed by Chennai Metro Rail at Thirumangalam and Vadapalani have suffered a delay of a few months.

While at Thirumangalam, the Chennai Metro Rail’s plan was to integrate the upcoming station in the 118.9-km phase II network (with three corridors) with four towers where people can shop, dine, or work, and hop onto a train to commute; at Vadapalani, a depot with an integrated bus terminal and commercial complex was to come up.

According to officials of Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL), though they had floated bids last year for carrying out the construction of these two projects, it had to be discharged owing to exorbitant quotes placed by bidders.

“This is because prospective bidders had submitted steep quotes for both the projects and it was not unjustified at all. We cannot go ahead with such prices. We modified the bids again to prevent this issue from occurring again. So, for Thirumangalam, we already floated the bids sometime back and once the Model Code of Conduct, which was imposed for the elections, is lifted, we will award the contract. As far as Vadapalani’s project is concerned, we will issue the bids shortly. There is only a minor delay of a month or two,” an official said.

The Thirumangalam project is a unique one in the phase II network and to which most commuters have been looking forward. Over an area of 3.85 acres, the four towers, including the phase II Chennai Metro Rail station will come up at Thirumangalam and this will be part of corridor 5 (from Madhavaram to Sholinganallur via Thirumangalam and Medavakkam).

Such a design gives commuters the ease of accessing public transport within the same space as that of commercial establishments and office spaces.

In the first three towers, there will be a ground and nine upper floors. The phase II station will be situated on the third and fourth floor of the second tower. In the first and the third tower, there will also be three basements. The fourth tower will include a ground and two floors.

The Vadapalani project coming up over 6.65 acres on Arcot Road aims to modernise one of the busiest depots handling over 1,000 bus services daily. It will turn into a multi-modal transit hub with a modern bus terminal that will have five boarding bays, two alighting bays, passenger amenities, office spaces, massive parking facilities, food court, and retail outlets.