Chennai, Sep 21 (UNI) Giving yet another push to intra-city connectivity that would greatly ease the traffic congestion, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa today flagged off the Chennai Metro Rail passenger services from Airport to Little Mount. The 8.6 km stretch between Little Mount and the airport comes under phase one of the project. The stretch has six stations--Little Mount, Guindy, Alandur, Meenambakkam, Nanganallur Road and Chennai Airport. She also declared open these metro stations along with the St Thomas Mount station. While a part of the stretch was elevated, the stretch from airport to Meenambakkam was underground. Union Minister of Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and I and B M Venkaiah Naidu, Union Minister of State for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan were present on the occasion and they travelled in the air conditioned coaches of the Metro Rail from Airport to Little Mount after the Chief Minister inaugurated the passenger services through video conferencing from the State Secretariat. Besides significantly reducing the travelling time of commuters, the service was also expected to bring down the traffic on busy roads like Anna Salai and GST Road. After the Work on the stretch was completed a few months ago, trial runs and tests were conducted. The first stage of approval began after inspection and certification was done by CMRL. Then the Commissioner of Metro Rail safety gave the nod and finally after the nod from the State government, the stretch was inaugurated for public use from today. The stretch was initially planned to be completed by December 2015 but got delayed due to various issues. It may be recalled that Ms Jayalalitha had flagged off the Metro Rail services between Alandur and Koyambedu which has found good patronage from public. However, direct services from Koyambedu to Chennai airport would be delayed as the special loop facility at Alandur was not built. 'Very soon, direct trains would be run on the loop line at Alandur so that direct train connections could be provided from Koyambedu to the Airport, without having to change at Alandur', Ms Jayalalithaa said in her address after inaugurating the second stretch. It may be recalled that Ms Jayalalitha had flagged off the Metro Rail services between Alandur and Koyambedu in June last year and it has found good patronage from public. UNI GV 1347