More suburban lines to open in city

The Southern Railway will complete a third and a fourth line between Chennai Beach and Athipattu by the end of this year. In the southern section, work is proceeding on a third line to a length of 11 km between Singaperumal Koil and Guduvancherry in order to run more services on the Tambaram-Chengalpattu section.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Southern Railway general manager R.K. Kulshrestha said passenger numbers had grown on the suburban sections. He was responding to a question whether the increase in bus fares had made the suburban services an attractive option. Additional electrical multiple units (EMU) will be operated when more rakes are made available.

Steam engine

The Chennai division is exploring the option of operating the world’s oldest steam engine EIR 21 between Chennai Beach and Egmore during weekends to offer a glimpse of the steam locomotive to the public, he said.

Major projects of track doubling and electrification have been completed on the Villupuram-Dindigul and Tiruchi-Thanjavur sections. With this, the entire Chennai-Madurai stretch of 495 km has been doubled. This will help run more long-distance trains. More services from Tambaram down south, including one to Tirunelveli are planned. Already, a service to Sengottah is being operated from Tambaram.

With an eye on safety, the railways has commissioned an Integrated Security System by constructing separate control rooms with closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras installed at 14 stations including Chennai Central, Egmore, Mambalam, Tambaram and Madurai.