CHENNAI: SIXTH INDIAN CITY WITH METRO RAILWAY

1. Chennai became the sixth Indian city to have the metro after
a. Delhi,
b. Kolkata, 
c. Bangalore,
d. Mumbai and 
e. Jaipur.

2. The Chennai metro was inaugurated on 29 June 2015 by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha.T he Chief Minister inaugurated it by flagging it off via live video from the State Secretariat .

3. The first train was driven by a 28-year-old woman, A Preethi.

4. The total cost of the project is Rs. 14,600 crore. The Central governmentprovides 15 per cent of the project cost as share capital and five per cent as loans, while the State gives 15 per cent as share capital and 5.78 per cent as loans. The remaining 59.22 per cent has been sourced as loan from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

5. The Union government has appointed the Metro Railway Protection Commissioner, Bangalore as the commissioner for Chennai Metro Rail as per the Metro Railway (Operations and Maintenance) Act, 2002, section 7.

6. On 11 August 2014, Union Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu announced that the Union Government would provide financial assistance, for theimplementation of a metro rail system, to all Indian cities having population ofmore than 1 million.

7. In May 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the Union Urban Development Ministry’s proposal to implement metro rail systems in 50 cities.

8. Other important facts:
** The first rapid transit system in India is the Kolkata Metro.
** Delhi Metro is the India’s first modern metro .
** India’s first privately owned and operated metro is Rapid Metro Rail Gurgaon.
** The first monorail in India is The Mumbai Monorail.