The railways have planned to start Chennai-Mamallapuram-Cuddalore coastal railway line from Chengalpet to Tambaram instead of a railway line in Perungudi. Now, the residents belonging to ECR or East Coast Road in Chennai have decided to approach the Union govt for the Perungudi railway line.
It is worthy to note that the ECR residents have written a letter to Tamizhachi Thangapandiyan, MP, Chennai south requesting her to get back the Perungudi railway line.
For a quick getaway from the bustling Chennai life, during the weekends, people in many vehicles crowd the OMR and ECR in south Chennai. Point is that most people who have settled in ECR and OMR belong to Cuddalore and Puducherry belt only and they go to their natives on the weekends.
Mr. M. Sivakumar, former president of Kapaleeswarar Nagar Residents Association mentioned that many IT employees to use this stretch for weekend getaways. He explained that the railway line was planned at Perungudi 16 years back to connect Puducherry and Perungudi for the sake of ECR residents. The railway line has been redirected to Chengalpet and by this the long demands of ECR residents have been ignored. It would be very difficult to travel 40kms to Mahabalipuram for the residents and the residents want Sholinganallur as the starting point.
Mr. Gomathinayagam, treasurer of Federation of Neelankarai Resident Welfare Associations spoke about how the people now take MRTS from Thiruvanmiyur to go to Central. He added that people take a bus or car to go to places like Puducherry, Cuddalore etc. He concluded that a railway line would be superb for the people.
It would be superb to have the coastal line from perungudi rather than from Chengalpet. This was brought out by Mr. J. Jayavardhan, former MP. He added that the RB and the railways ministry must take action taking the requests of the residents into account.