The Indian railways have announced 18 additional EMU services for the city of Chennai in the Railway Budget for 2012-13 aimed at easing the commuter travel.

The new services include Chennai Beach-Tambaram, Chennai Beach-Chengalpattu, Chennai Beach-Avadi, Chennai Beach-Tiruttani, Chennai Beach-Gummidipoondi/Sullurpetta and Chennai Beach-Velachery sections. The average waiting time for commuters in Chennai is 10 minutes, with the shortest interval being two minutes and the longest 18. According to officials, with the introduction of new services the average waiting time will be reduced to 8 minutes and each train will run four or five services everyday.

The department is aiming to complete the project to expand the MRTS from Velachery to St. Thomas Mount. The extention will have two stations namely, Puzhuthivakkam and Adambakkam starting from Velachery and St. Thomas Mount. The elevated stretch f the communter system currently runs between Chennai Beach and Velachery. It is 25 km long and has 17 stoppages.

The Tamil Nadu state government has already sanctioned its share of expenditure for work on the Tirumayilai-Velachery MRTS sector amounting to Rs. 1.97 crore.

The budget also includes plans for the railways to roll out integrated security systems at all the 202 identified stations during 2012-13. The state-of-the-art systems are being rolled out as part of the countrywide surveillance systems in all of the important stations.