NLC India Airport Metro (formerly known as Chennai International Airport) is an elevated southern terminal metro station on the North-South Corridor of the Blue Line of Chennai Metro in Chennai, India. This station serves the Chennai International Airport and the neighbourhoods of Meenambakkam, Tirusulam, Pallavaram, Pammal, Kundrathur and Tambaram. The station is the only elevated airport metro station in India. The other airport metro stations in the country such as those in Delhi, Lucknow, Mumbai and the proposed ones at Bangalore and Hyderabad are underground. The station enables rapid transit connectivity with the airport, making Chennai the second city in India after Delhi to achieve this.
Construction
The foundation for the station was laid on 24 May 2012. While the architectural and structural design of the station will be carried out by AAI in consultation with Creative Group, the interiors of the station will be designed by CMRL. The time frame for constructing the metro station is 14 months and the work has been awarded to URC Construction Company Private Limited, Erode, at a cost of ₹ 480 million.
By the end of July 2014, the structural work on the station was completed.
The station
The station building is a five-level terminal with a basement, ground floor, metro ground floor, concourse, and a platform. The station spans 17,300 square meters. To help passengers alight directly from the international and domestic terminals, the concourse of the station will be linked to the glass connector tube that will connect the two terminals. The station will be an RCC shell structure building with self-supported secret fix aluminium roofing.
The station is one of the few in the corridor that will have parking facilities.
Station layout
| Chennai International Airport track layout | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Legend | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Station with two tracks and two side platforms ** (Further extension to Kilambakkam metro station in the future) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| G | Street level | Exit/Entrance |
| L1 | Mezzanine | Fare control, station agent, Metro Card vending machines, crossover |
| L2 | Side platform | Doors will open on the left 
| |
| Platform 1 Southbound |
Towards → Train Terminates Here (to be further extended to Kilambakkam in the future) | |
| Platform 2 Northbound |
Towards ← Wimco Nagar Depot Next Station: Meenambakkam | |
| Side platform | Doors will open on the left
| ||
| L2 | ||
Traffic
As of December 2019, about 9,000 passengers board trains at the metro station, up from about 6,500 passengers in February 2019, making it the third busiest Metro stations in Chennai, after Thirumangalam and Chennai Central.
See also
References
- ^ Sekar, Sunitha (25 December 2019). "After a slow start, Metro sees steady uptick in ridership". The Hindu. Chennai: Kasturi & Sons. p. 4. Retrieved 28 December 2019.
- "Once Hyderabad Airport Metro opens, air passengers can check in at Metro station: HMRL MD".
- ^ Sekar, Sunitha (4 August 2014). "Metro rail station work at Chennai airport completed". The Hindu. Chennai. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
- ^ Sridhar, Asha (24 May 2012). "Work on airport metro station to begin soon". The Hindu. Chennai. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
- Ayyappan, V. (9 March 2012). "AAI and CMRL firmed up to build the airport metro station". The Times of India. Chennai. Archived from the original on 16 February 2013. Retrieved 6 January 2013.
- "Single train trip to equal 16 buses, 300 cars and 600 bikes". The Hindu. Chennai. 29 August 2012. Retrieved 25 November 2012.
- Sekar, Sunitha (21 February 2019). "Metro users jump to 90,000". The Hindu. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
External links
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