Metro Rail's first underground trial run likely tomorrow.

On Friday, for the first time, an underground section of Chennai Metro Rail is likely to witness a trial run with trains.

The stretch between Thirumangalam ramp and Shenoy Nagar will be electrified on Friday and the officials of Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) plan to carry out the trial run on the same day, sources said.

Sometime ago, the Overhead Maintenance Vehicle ran through this stretch.

“We have started work on signalling too in this stretch. The tunnelling and track work got over several months ago. So, we want to check if everything goes well with electrification in this stretch now and carry out trials too,” an official said.

Chennai Metro Rail plans to open to the public the first underground stretch between Thirumangalam ramp and Nehru Park by October.

But the trial run that is likely to happen on Friday will not be done up to Nehru Park as there is quite a bit of work to be completed, sources added.

Also, on the same day, the trial run between Alandur and Chennai airport will be carried out again with an Overhead Maintenance Vehicle. 'On Tuesday, we did a trial run in one line (upward). Now, on Friday, we may do it on the other line (downward),' an official said.

Chennai Metro Rail, which is being built at a cost of Rs. 14,600 crore, commenced its first service in the 10-km stretch between Koyambedu and Alandur in July last year.

CMRL plans to open the next service between Little Mount and Chennai airport in six months.

THE HINDU