 "Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa")
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister on Wednesday, inaugurated services on the second elevated corridor of Chennai Metro Rail Project here and lauded the Centre for supporting development in the state.
"I acknowledge support of the government of India in implementation of the Metro Rail project," she said while inaugurating the project from the Secretariat through video conferencing.
The second elevated corridor covers a distance of 8.6 km from the Airport to Little Mount Station.
This stretch covers stations at Airport, Meenambakkam, Nanganallur Road, Guindy and Little Mount, besides St Thomas Mount Metro Station on Corridor II of Metro Rail.
Noting the presence of Union Ministers Venkaiah Naidu at the event, the Chief Minister said she had no doubt he would continue to steadfastly support Tamil Nadu's development.
Jayalalithaa also said that Union Minister of State Pon Radhakrishnan, who was also present there, had consistently endeavoured to bring into Tamil Nadu large development projects.
The first metro train, piloted by woman loco pilot Amsaveni, was flagged off by Jayalalithaa and Union ministers from the Airport station.
Jayalalithaa had inaugurated the 10.15 km elevated Koyambedu-Alandur section on June 29 last year.
She said services on the 1.28 km stretch from Alandur to St Thomas Mount would also commence soon after obtaining clearance from Commissioner for Metro Rail Safety.
When that becomes functional, the entire 20 km elevated sector of Chennai Metro Rail Project would be operational. It would connect with suburban train services and mofussil and other bus services. Trains to be soon run on a loop line at Alandur would ensure direct connections from Koyambedu to the airport, without having to change at Alandur, she said.
"All these are steps towards realising my vision of making Chennai a truly modern city of the 21st century with all amenities for its residents," Jayalalithaa said.
She expressed confidence that the share of public transport in Chennai would go up substantially with seamless integration of buses, suburban train services, air services, metro rail and eventually the monorail.
Thanking Japan for its support, she said it was India's and Tamil Nadu's largest development partner today and that she was confident that Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) would continue support for the CMRP.
"We also request support for other important projects in the pipeline like the 400 million litres per day Desalination Project near Chennai, Chennai Peripheral Ring road Project and Tamil Nadu Investment Promotion Programme Phase II," she said.
She congratulated all those associated with the project, "who have brought a modern mass transit system to the city of Chennai.
