In a move that will not require huge investments, but at the same time, bring considerable amount of relief to a few lakh commuters, the Southern Railway plans to expand the construction of ‘double discharge’ platforms in a few more railway stations on the Chennai Beach – Tambaram section.
Similar platforms are available in Chennai Park, while in Tambaram, work was completed recently. In a double discharge platform, commuters can board or alight from trains from both sides of the compartment, resulting in swifter evacuation of commuters from the stations and more importantly, result in decongesting the foot over bridges, officials said.
Officials said that they had planned to create the double discharge platforms on the western side of the stations as they are close to the access roads leading to the stations and also the vehicle parking lots. For instance, in stations they had selected for this facility – Chromepet, Pallavaram, St. Thomas Mount, Guindy, Saipadet, Chetpet and Egmore, there was enough vacant land on the western side of the stations.
However, they can be created only in one direction – towards Chennai Beach, officials said. They cannot be created on the eastern side of the stations as the access would lead commuters to the main platforms. In stations like Guindy, during the morning rush hours, when commuters from both ordinary and fast local Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) services alight, there is complete chaos until all of them exit the platforms as the foot over bridge gets choked. Creating an additional platform will ease this problem marginally, they said.
It will cost about Rs. 1 crore to create these additional platforms, which will also include ticket counters. In Chetpet, the ticket counter is located on the foot over bridge and it will make no sense to have it on the top, while creating an additional platform. Hence the new additional platforms will have to come along with the ticket counters.
The Southern Railway has also proposed to construct additional foot over bridges at Guindy, Mambalam and Saidapet and a pedestrian subway at Nungambakkam. Other passenger-friendly amenities that are on the anvil include escalators at Guindy, Chennai Park, Saidapet and Tambaram. The ones planned at Tambaram are additional as it already has two functional escalators.
