Metro Rail will lease trains for a section of phase II

Chennai Metro Rail Limited looks to cut down on capital cost of project

For the first time, the Metro Rail will be leasing trains for a section of the phase II project, whose work has recently started. In the phase I and phase I extension projects, Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) had floated tenders and acquired trains which were manufactured by Alstom, a French firm. While a few were built in Sao Paolo, Brazil, a majority of them were commissioned from Sri City near the city. But for the phase II project, they had to go in for leasing trains because they had to cut down on the capital cost of the project, sources said. Initially, the cost estimates for the project, which covers 118.9 km, was touching as much as ₹88,000 crore and subsequently, after a constant push from the Centre on the high cost and the need to bring it down substantially, CMRL trimmed the budget over a period of time. The final cost now stands at ₹61,843 crore.