Chennai Metro Phase II · Corridor 5 · Red Line
The casting yard has finished its job on the elevated package that runs toward Sholinganallur. The viaduct, the station doors and the train have not.
CMRL has finished casting 3,126 precast elements, including the last U-girder, on Corridor 5 between Ullagaram and Sholinganallur. Those pieces still have to be erected and station entries built before track and trials. For OMR, the useful link is a future change at Sholinganallur onto Corridor 3, which is not yet carrying passengers.
Chennai Metro Rail Limited has finished casting every precast element on the southern elevated package of Corridor 5, the Red Line that is supposed to deliver Madipakkam, Medavakkam and Perumbakkam to Sholinganallur. The number is 3,126. The last piece was a U-girder. Passenger service is a different sentence, and CMRL has not written it.
Chennai · 17 October 2026 — By the MyOMR Editorial Team. CMRL’s note was reported on 14 October 2026. DT Next’s dateline is Chennai, not the casting yard.
Elements cast
3,126
U-girders
892
Concrete
98,052 m³
Reinforcement
18,550 tonnes
HT strands
3,010 tonnes
Next, per CMRL
Lift girders, build entries
What CMRL actually announced
DT Next, Deccan Chronicle and the trade press carried the same CMRL note. Package ECV-03, described as Ullagaram to Sholinganallur on Phase II Corridor 5, has completed casting of all precast elements, including the final U-girder.
The inventory is specific. CMRL listed 1,041 I-girders, 892 U-girders, 871 pier-arm segments, 303 pier caps and 19 portal shells. Added up, that is 3,126 pieces. The agency said the 892 U-girders are the highest U-girder production of any Phase II package. The concrete, steel and high-tensile strand figures above are CMRL’s, not an estimate.
The work is credited to CMRL, general consultant AEON Consortium, and contractor HCC–KEC Consortium. Director (Projects) T. Archunan was present when the milestone was marked.
The note then does the useful thing a press release often avoids. It names the next job: erect the remaining U-girders, and build the entry and exit structures. Those are the activities CMRL says are “progressing towards the timely completion” of Phase II. Timely, here, is an aspiration. It is not a date.
| Precast element | Number cast | What it is, in plain language |
|---|---|---|
| I-girders | 1,041 | Named by CMRL. This article does not add an engineering definition beyond the name. |
| U-girders | 892 | CMRL said this is the highest U-girder count among Phase II packages. On the OMR package in July, CMRL described U-girders as the precast beams for viaduct and station spans. |
| Pier-arm segments | 871 | Named by CMRL in the same inventory. |
| Pier caps | 303 | Named by CMRL in the same inventory. |
| Portal shells | 19 | Named by CMRL in the same inventory. The note does not define what these 19 shells span. |
This is not the metro on OMR
That distinction matters, because the two lines meet at the same place and are easy to collapse into one rumour.
Corridor 5 is the Red Line on CMRL’s Phase II map: Madhavaram Milk Colony to Sholinganallur, 47 km, with 48 stations on CMRL’s project-status page. Of that, 41.2 km is elevated and 5.8 km underground. The stations named in the 2021 contract for this package run through Madipakkam, Kilkattalai, Kovilambakkam, Medavakkam and Perumbakkam, in southern Chennai on the inland side of OMR, toward Sholinganallur.
Corridor 3 is the Purple Line: Madhavaram to SIPCOT, about 45.8 km. Its southern elevated run is the one actually being built along Old Mahabalipuram Road. In July, CMRL said package C3/EV-01, executed by Larsen & Toubro, had finished all 3,066 piles and all 582 U-girders between Nehru Nagar and Sholinganallur. MyOMR reported that milestone here.
July was the OMR viaduct’s foundations and its U-girders. October is a different contract, on the line that feeds Sholinganallur from Medavakkam and Perumbakkam. Neither announcement puts a train on Rajiv Gandhi Salai.
The interchange is the point of the story for anyone who lives or works on the IT corridor. A commuter from Medavakkam or Perumbakkam is not, on this package, boarding a train that runs along OMR. The planned change is at Sholinganallur. The Times of India has reported that station as a two-level interchange, with Corridor 3 below and Corridor 5 above, and quoted Director (Projects) T. Archunan saying Corridor 5 trains would come down to the Corridor 3 level there. Corridor 3 is the line CMRL describes as Madhavaram to SIPCOT, including the OMR stretch. That change works only when both levels are open to passengers. CMRL’s project page, last updated 6 October 2026, still says Phase II is proposed for completion by the end of 2028. That is a project target, not an opening date for this stretch.
What the contract said this package was
CMRL’s October wording is “Ullagaram to Sholinganallur.” The contract behind package C5-ECV-03 was narrower, and it is worth quoting the scope rather than smoothing the names.
An Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank contract-award notice describes C5-ECV-03 as an elevated viaduct of about 11.61 km, from chainage 33,710 m to 45,320 m, between Puzhuthivakkam metro station (excluded) and a point beyond Elcot station. The notice lists 11 elevated stations: Madipakkam, Kilkattalai, Echangadu, Kovilambakkam, Vellakkal, Medavakkam Koot Road, Kamaraj Garden Street, Medavakkam Junction, Perumbakkam, Global Hospital and Elcot.
Sholinganallur is not one of those 11 names. Ullagaram is not either. Reports of this week’s note, including Rail Analysis and Deccan Chronicle, call the package ECV-03 and place it on the Ullagaram–Sholinganallur stretch. That is the same contract number as AIIB’s C5-ECV-03. The October note is describing the stretch by the localities at either end. It is not a list that includes a station named Sholinganallur among the 11. Residents should not treat this week’s casting as the completion of the interchange station at Sholinganallur junction. That station is planned for both Corridor 3 and Corridor 5.
HCC–KEC was the lowest bidder on the AIIB notice. The recorded contract price is Rs 1,122.02 crore, excluding provisional sums and GST. The same notice sets the duration at 1,095 days and does not give a commencement date. The Metro Rail Guy, writing on 16 November 2021, described a 36-month duration and a November 2024 deadline, and noted that it did not have the letter of acceptance. This article therefore does not say CMRL has formally declared the package late. Precast casting being completed in October 2026 is what the new note says. It does not, by itself, prove a missed contractual deadline.
Why the southern neighbourhoods should still pay attention
The localities named in the contract — Madipakkam, Kovilambakkam, Medavakkam and Perumbakkam — are residential areas whose road link toward the IT corridor runs into Sholinganallur. This article is not claiming a counted share of OMR’s workforce lives there. CMRL’s July note on the Corridor 3 package said station work at the Thoraipakkam and Sholinganallur junctions had to be integrated with TNRDC flyovers while traffic kept moving. That is a Corridor 3 fact. It is not a traffic plan for this Corridor 5 package.
The 2021 contract also names an Elcot station on this Corridor 5 stretch. A separate Times of India report on the Sholinganallur interchange mentions an Elcot–ECR side of that station. Those are related places, not a finding that the Elcot station box is already an OMR campus stop. No report this week says trains are a substitute for the bus.
What 3,126 pieces do not mean
A precast element is a component made in a yard, checked, and stored until a crane can lift it. Casting the last one means the factory part of this package is over. It does not mean every span is sitting on its piers. CMRL said as much: remaining U-girders still have to be erected.
CMRL has not, in this note, announced night closures or a diversion on Medavakkam or Perumbakkam roads. Erection of the remaining U-girders is the next step it did name. Whether that erection closes lanes is not in the October note, so this article does not predict one.
The note also does not mention track, power, signalling or a safety inspection. Those are later stages of a metro, and Indian metro sections ordinarily need clearance from the Commission of Metro Railway Safety before passengers are carried. That is the general rule. It is not a sentence in this week’s press note. What the note does list next is entry and exit structures.
Phase II as a whole is 118.9 km and 128 stations, at a stated cost of Rs 63,246 crore, on both CMRL’s project page and a Lok Sabha reply of 6 August 2026. That reply said CMRL had put current physical progress at 54.62 percent. It did not say “till June.” The Hindu, on 22 July 2026, reported that a Rajya Sabha reply had given the same 54.62 percent as the position until June. Either way it is a network-wide figure, not an OMR percentage and not an October figure. It does not say when a Perumbakkam resident can board.
What to watch next
Three things are worth tracking, and only the first is about this package.
First, girder erection and the entry-exit structures on ECV-03. If those move, the Medavakkam–Perumbakkam–Sholinganallur approach is no longer a casting-yard story.
Second, the Corridor 3 stations on OMR itself — the line this Red Line is meant to feed. Civil milestones there are further along than many people assume, and still short of a timetable. The tracker we keep for that distinction is the OMR Metro Phase 2 tracker.
Third, any CMRL sentence that contains an opening month. There is not one in this week’s note. When it comes, it will name a section, a trial, or a safety inspection. Until then, “3,126” is a production figure. It is a large one. It is the highest U-girder count CMRL has claimed for a Phase II package. It is also the point at which the story moves from the yard to the road, which is where OMR will notice it.
What the published record does and does not say
Has CMRL finished the Ullagaram–Sholinganallur metro stretch?
No. CMRL said the casting of all 3,126 precast elements for Corridor 5 package ECV-03 is complete, including the final U-girder. The same note said the next work is erecting the remaining U-girders and building station entry and exit structures. Track, power, signalling, trials and safety clearance are still ahead of any passenger service.
How does this package relate to OMR?
This package is Corridor 5, shown as the Red Line on CMRL’s Phase II map, from Madhavaram to Sholinganallur. It is not the elevated line being built along Old Mahabalipuram Road. The 2021 contract for this package names stations through Madipakkam, Medavakkam and Perumbakkam. Sholinganallur is planned as an interchange with Corridor 3, not as a Corridor 3-only station. Corridor 3 is where CMRL reported in July 2026 that piling and U-girder casting were complete between Nehru Nagar and Sholinganallur. An interchange helps commuters only after both levels are open.
What was actually cast?
CMRL listed 1,041 I-girders, 892 U-girders, 871 pier-arm segments, 303 pier caps and 19 portal shells. The agency said the 892 U-girders are the highest U-girder count among Phase II packages. The work used 98,052 cubic metres of concrete, 18,550 tonnes of reinforcement steel and 3,010 tonnes of high-tensile strands.
When will metro trains run to Sholinganallur?
CMRL has not announced a passenger opening date for this stretch. CMRL’s project page describes the Phase II network, 118.9 km and 128 stations, as proposed for completion by the end of 2028. A Lok Sabha reply on 6 August 2026 said current physical progress was 54.62 percent. The Hindu reported that a Rajya Sabha reply had put that same percentage as the position until June 2026. Treat the casting milestone as civil progress, not a start of service.
Sources. DT Next, 14 October 2026 · Deccan Chronicle · Financial Express · AIIB contract award, C5-ECV-03 · The Metro Rail Guy, November 2021 · CMRL project status · CMRL press note, 16 July 2026 · Lok Sabha unstarred question 3073, 6 August 2026 · The Hindu, 22 July 2026, on the June progress figure · The Times of India, on the Sholinganallur interchange
