Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay jointly flagged off a new section of Chennai Metro Phase II on Sunday, 11 October 2026. The opened line runs about 15 km between Poonamallee Bypass and Vadapalani and has 11 elevated stations. Roughly 3. 7 km of it is a double-decker section where the metro runs on a deck beneath a road flyover, and that section does not operate on Sundays. The stretch is reported to have cost around Rs 4,900 crore, and its signalling is designed to support driverless operation in future.
The first train left Porur Bypass station at noon, with the two leaders riding to Poonamallee Bypass and back while Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar attended the launch. Modi bought his ticket digitally and spoke with commuters and staff, and said the line would make daily travel faster and better connect Chennai’s western suburbs with the city centre. Passenger services began at 4 pm on the opening day and run from 7 am to 9 pm in both directions from 12 October. The visit also covered development works worth over Rs 13,000 crore across the state. These include highway projects of about Rs 3,700 crore, railway upgrades above Rs 750 crore with five redeveloped Amrit Bharat stations at Palani, Vellore Cantonment, Ambasamudram, Paramakudi and Namakkal, and a Rs 1,620 crore lube oil base stock project at CPCL’s Manali refinery. Port capacity projects at Chennai, V.
O. Chidambaranar and Kamarajar ports were also part of the package. The joint appearance is politically notable because Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam leads the state government and has until now been positioned independently of both the BJP and the DMK. Commentators noted the warm optics between the two leaders and questioned how long the cordiality would last, given the state’s pending demands on funds and policy from the Centre.