Chennai: The railways ministry will finally grant the wish of thousands of suburban rail commuters when Union minister Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu lays foundation stone for a third line on Tambaram-Chengalpattu route.
At a function to be held at Tambaram railway station on February 7, the minister will also be launching the new line between Chinna Salem and Kallakurichi and inaugurating an escalator set up at Tiruchy junction. However, it is news regarding the third line to Chengalpattu and of converting the Tambaram station into the third terminal in Chennai that has delighted commuters.
“It is a dream come true. But the ministry should not stop with the foundation stone ceremony and should allocate enough funds for the project and also complete it quickly,” said V. Santhanam, secretary, Chromepet Rail Users’ Forum.
Representatives of the Perungalathur-Chengalpattu Rail Passengers Association added that the ministry should include funds for the project in the upcoming rail budget.
“This should not be an empty poll manifesto option for the BJP government,” said a member, requesting anonymity.
The railways operates an average of 250 EMUs in the Beach-Tambaram Chengalpattu corridor. Around 170 of these EMUs run only till Tambaram. For a long time, commuters had demanded the railways to extend all EMU services up to Chengalpattu, which they believe will help ease peak hour traffic on GST Road too.
However, without a third line to supplement the movement of Express trains on this route, the railways had turned down the requests until now.
