CHENNAI: In order to provide direct connectivity to the northern suburban passengers with southern outskirts, Chennai division of the Southern Railway will introduce four services of Electrical Multiple Unit (EMU) trains between Chengalpet and Gummidipoondi from Monday. Four nine-car EMU services will be operated from Monday to Friday between Gummidipoondi and Chengalpet via Chennai Beach and Tambaram and the train will not be operated on weekends.
The first EMU train starts at Gummidipoondi at 6 am and will reach Chengalpet at 9.50 am. The same train will leave Chengalpet at 10.30 am and reach Gummidipoondi at 1.55 pm.
The second EMU service starts at Gummidipoondi at 2.25 pm and will reach Tambaram at 4.55 pm. Similarly, during the return, the train will start at 6.05 pm at Tambaram and will reach Gummidipoondi at 8.40 pm.
The move is expected to bring a huge relief to northern suburban passengers as they have to get down at the Chennai Moore Market Complex and board trains to Tambaram at Chennai Park. “The new train will reduce ongestion of Chennai MMC and Central stations,” explained a senior railway official. According to official records, before January 2018, about 3.92 lakh passengers were carried by 151 train services in the Chennai-Arakkonam section a day, while 224 train services catered to about 5.55 lakh passengers in the Beach-Chengalpet section a day.