CHENNAI: Railway officials have managed to restore the suburban lines on Chennai – Avadi section over 12 hours after the derailment of three bogies of an empty EMU rake at Avadi station at 5.40hrs Tuesday.

An official release issued late Tuesday evening said that the derailed coaches were completely removed and the suburban line was also restored at 18.30 hrs and all the services have resumed normal operations in Chennai Suburban sector.

Claiming that no passengers were involved as the derailed EMU rake was empty and no staff indulged in restoration works has suffered any injury, the SR statement said that the motorman of the empty EMU rake has been placed under suspension.

Further probe has been ordered and preliminary inquiries will shortly begin, it added.

As per the official release, around 9.30 hrs, the OHE glitch on the main line was resolved and express train operations resumed normalcy. Apart from eight Express services which were either rescheduled or regulated, all other Express trains are running as per schedule.

Suburban EMU train services towards Chennai Central was diverted to run on the fast line between Nimilichery and Avadi and faced a delay of 15 to 20 minutes.

The accident relief team numbering 300 and an accident relief train were deployed for the restoration works which were inspected by Kaushal Kishore, AGM, Southern Railway and Vishwanath Eerya, DRM/Chennai.