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Tirumayilai - Tiruvanmiyur service by month-end: Moorthy

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI SEPT. 12. Train services in the Tirumayilai - Tiruvanmiyur section of the Mass Rapid Transit System are expected to be inaugurated only during this month-end, the Union Minister of State for Railways, A. K. Moorthy, said here today.

Talking to reporters after flagging off a weekend special to Nagercoil from the Central station, the Minister said already letters had been sent to the Commissioner of Railway Safety and the Railway Development and Standards Organisation, Lucknow, to inspect the MRTS. However, the authorities had to inspect two gauge conversion works (Cuddalore-Vadalur, Villupuram-Chinnababu Samudram, near Pondicherry), besides the MRTS and the track in the Anna Nagar-Villivakkam section. The CRS authorities would do the inspection during the month end, only after which the services would be operated, Mr. Moorthy said.

The gauge conversion between Tambaram and Chengalpattu was progressing as expected and the authorities were planning to send a letter to the CRS during this month end to get his clearance.

On the weekend special, Mr. Moorthy said 75 per cent of the accommodation was reserved on the first day itself.

It was a long-pending demand of the people of Arakkonam and Jolarpet to operate a train service to southern Tamil Nadu through Jolarpet, which had been met today.

The Union Minister of State for Food Processing, N. T. Shanmugam, appealed to Mr. Moorthy to extend Katpadi-Arakkonam EMU services to the city. He also wanted the weekend Nagercoil special operated as a daily train.

Replying to his request, Mr. Moorthy said depending upon the patronage, the Nagercoil special could be operated twice a week.

He announced a cash prize of Rs. 10,000 each to two Southern Railway employees — Jayachandran Unnithan, Senior Section Engineer, Coonoor Steam Loco Shed, and Govindarajan, Technical Grade I, Track Machines Unit, Arakkonam — who won Shram awards.

The former Tamil Nadu Congress president, Kumari Ananthan, appealed to the railway authorities to attach a first class compartment for the benefit of senior citizens and those who could not travel by air-conditioned coaches.

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