The work for putting up escalators in Madurai Railway junction has begun with the construction of foundation for the facility. The work is likely to be completed by November.
Escalators for the Madurai railway station was promised at least four years back. However, various factors, including the change in policy of procurement of escalators, had been delaying the work.
The Madurai Divisional administration had proposed to provide escalators on outside platform one and outside platform eight and the third one on platforms two/three.
Divisional Engineer K.R. Prakash, said that work for the project, at a cost of Rs. 4.5 crore, has begun. “The work to lay the foundation for the escalators is underway,” he said. The escalators would be fitted to the new foot-over-bridge, located on the northern side of the junction. Already one flight of steps, on the southern side, of the foot-over-bridge that serves platform two/three has been removed to facilitate the work.
However, on the eastern side of the railway junction, that is outside platform one and platform eight, the escalator would be erected parallel to the flight of steps, so that passengers have the option of using the escalators and the steps.
On all the three spots, the escalators, for climbing up and climbing down would be placed parallel to each other.
