The 119 km stretch of the Chennai Metro’s Phase-2 which will connect the core city localities with the suburban areas has been listed under the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, aimed to attract global investors.This corridor will be connecting Chennai’s core localities like T Nagar, Nandanam, Mylapore, Vadapalni, and the like to the city’s developing IT hubs at Porur and Poonamallee. The project is estimated to cost Rs 69,180 crore. Work is likely to begin in early 2021 and with a deadline for 2026. Earlier this year, the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) decided to provide 12,722 sq m of land. The land worth Rs 41.99 crore was provided for the second phase of the city’s metro rail project. The land also includes an “Amma canteen”, an open playground, a portion of a road, and two parks. The project was listed in the India Investment Grid to attract global investments for infrastructure projects in India. The Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) project was listed as “under development” in the detailed project report. The official website further clarifies that the total cost of the project is Rs 69,180 crore ($9.36 billion), and that Rs 100 crore ($13.53 million) of the project cost has been incurred till 31 August 2020. Additionally, the 289.6 acres of land required by CMRL for the construction of the three corridors have not been acquired yet. This includes the 260.7 acres for the construction of the priority corridor from Madhavaram to Sholinganallur on Corridor 3 and Madhavaram to CMBT on Corridor 5. Mode of delivery: The metro rail project is expected to be implemented in the engineering, producerment, construction (EPC) mode. In this mode, the contractor would be involved in all the steps, the design, construction, procurement, commissioning, and handover of the metro rail project. The project attracted global attention with top construction and consultancy firms bidding for the construction of the fourth corridor. Firms from Korea, Europe, the United States, and Japan have placed bids for the same. Chennai Metro has also invited nine construction bids for the second phase of the Chennai Metro project. The CMRL officials clarified that they wouldn’t have any problems receiving funds from the agencies and the project may need government funding only in the later stages of the project. The second phase of CMRL’s project already received funding from international agencies such as the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). JICA agreed to loan an amount of $2.71 billion (approximately Rs 20,196 crore) for the priority corridor. Moreover, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) agreed to fund $795.4 million (around Rs 6,000 crore) for the construction of the 16 km stretch extending from Meenakshi College to Poonamallee bypass on the fourth corridor and from CMBT to Sholinganallur on Corridor 5.