The other day, when A. Vinod stepped out of the Tambaram Sanatorium pedestrian subway, he was stopped by a woman who must be in the wrong side of fifty. “Do the walls and ceiling in the subway still leak?” Vinod answered in the affirmative. The lady chose to take the flyover. For over 10 days, many pedestrians, especially the senior citizens among them, are approaching the subway with cautious steps. For, the ceiling and the walls are still oozing rainwater. During rush hour, a number of commuters, mostly employees of Madras Export Processing Zone, Tambaram Sanatorium, use the subway to reach East Tambaram, Tambaram Sanatorium, Chitlapakkam and Hasthinapuram.
As a temporary measure, to ensure people don’t get wet due to rainwater falling from the ceiling, the Southern Railway has put up PVC pipes to divert the water away. Despite this measure, the problem persists. P. Vishwanathan, a social activist, says, “The subway is an important passageway; it is used by a huge number of pedestrians every day. Train commuters from Chitlapakkam, Tambaram East, Hasthinapuram and Mahalakshmi Nagar take trains at the station to reach various destinations across the city and the passageway is the only access to the station for those coming from Tambaram Sanatorium, Chitlapakkam and Tambaram East. I have written letters to the Divisional Railway Manager, Railway General Manager and the Union Railway Minister, but in vain,” he says.
