Summary:
CHENNAI: Finding parking space for your bike or car around Central Railway Station on bustling Poonamallee High Road may soon become easy as Chennai Metro Rail Limited ( CMRL ) has started preliminary work to build a multi-level underground parking lot as part of Central Square . It has floated tenders to build the parking lot, which can accommodate more than 800 cars and serve as a foundation for the 20-storey Central plaza.“Once foundation for the parking lot is laid, it will make it easy for us to build the plaza above. At present, Central Railway Station, Park suburban station, Moore Market Complex and Central Metro have parking space on their premises.Private outstation buses that pick up and drop passengers end up halting at one corner of the road causing traffic jams.The Central Plaza, planned at a cost of ?400 crore, will link Central Railway Station, Central Metro, Park Station, Park Town Station and Moore Market Complex through several facilities. Unlike Central Metro, which posed an engineering challenge to construct due to rocky soil, CMRL officials said they have done several studies to build the foundation for the plaza and the parking lot at a faster pace.“We have taken sufficient measures to ensure the soil condition won’t cause problems during construction,” a metro rail official said.Officials said the plaza set to come up above the underground parking lot will be a 20-storey building packed with amenities for both bus crew and passengers. We will float separate tenders for it,” a metro rail official said.After the tender is awarded, it may take at least a month for construction to begin, as the contractor will have to install machinery needed for excavation and building diaphragm wall.The underground multilevel parking, planned at a cost of ?211 crore, will come up in the space in front of Park suburban station close to the Ramasamy Mudaliar Choultry and is expected to be ready in two years.Once the parking space is opened, commuters heading to board outstation or local trains and buses on Poonamallee High Road can conveniently park their vehicles..