Southern Railway began operating trains between Chennai Beach and Arakkonam section from Friday. Trains would be run every 45 minutes for passengers coming by air to the Arakkonam naval base. Skeleton suburban services were also operated between Tiruvottiyur and Sullurpeta.
Six sets of specials began to be operated from Chennai Egmore to various destinations of South Tamil Nadu. Senior officials have been deputed at Arakkonam for coordination and making necessary arrangements for the passengers who are using the naval base.
As many as 21 passenger specials were run from/to Chennai Beach/Tiruvallur/
Arakkonam
/Villupuram/
Tiruchi/Tirunelveli/Kanyakumari/Rameswaram/Mangaluru/Bengaluru/Hyderabad/Hazrat Nizamuddin/Howrah since Wednesday to clear the stranded passengers, officials said.
Connectivity through suburban trains to originating stations was made.
Officials have been deputed to Chennai Beach and other originating stations to monitor the special trains run to various destinations, including booking and refund of tickets. Additional counters have been opened for booking and refund of tickets.
On Thursday, officials appraised Chief Secretary K. Gnanadesikan about the arrangements for stranded passengers.
The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation had arranged for 36,000 water bottles to be supplied to stranded passengers.
The officials also said that 7,000 food packets would be dispensed free of cost at Chennai Beach and other stations in addition to the 30,000 packets distributed on Thursday.
At Chennai Egmore dinner had been arranged on Friday. RPF personnel would assist and regulate the passengers in boarding the special trains at various places.
