The Velachery to St. Thomas Mount railway stations' Phase 2 Extension Project for the Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) is finally scheduled to be finished by the end of July. However, due to the unfinished nature of a section of track for the Metro Rail Phase 2 Project, which runs from St. Thomas Mount and circles the Adambakkam train station, the entire commissioning of the MRTS project won't be finished until the end of this year.

It was proposed to expand the MRTS Phase 2 Project to the St. Thomas Mount railway station, which was finished between Chennai Beach and Velachery and opened by the previous chief minister M. Karunanidhi in November 2007.

But the extension project covering 5 km was caught up in legal wrangles for several years due to land acquisition for a 500-m stretch. This land was finally acquired, and the work started a few years ago.

B. Guganesan, Chief Public Relations Officer, Southern Railway, said since the Metro Phase 2 line crosses the MRTS stretch for 500 m between the St. Thomas Mount and Adambakkam railway stations, the work would be undertaken jointly by the Southern Railway and Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL).