Southern Railway has cleared the decks for constructing an additional foot over bridge at the Mambalam railway station to ease congestion on the existing facility on the suburban platform.
The crowds swell so much during the morning and evening rush hours, especially on weekends, that they become unmanageable and hence the need for another foot overbridge, officials said.
Earlier this month, Southern Railway officials measured land belonging to Southern Railway near the station.
A team of staff surveyed the land between the landing of the pedestrian foot overbridge on Ranganathan Street and the Madley Subway.
Officials said the survey was part of preliminary works for constructing the overbridge near the existing one at the northern end of the platform.
“The land for a width ranging between 1.1 metres and 2 metres from the existing compound wall belongs to the Railways. We would need at least eighteen metres of the land between Ranganathan Street and Madley Subway,” officials said.
According to them, the new foot overbridge would be parallel to the existing one, but 10 feet away from it. The idea was to facilitate quicker exit of passengers from the station.
“We first have to identify our land and then fix the boundary first. A tender for the FOB will be floated soon, officials said.
Among the busiest stations in the city’s suburban network, over 25,000 commuters use trains from this station everyday. In addition, over 1.5 lakh non-commuting pedestrians use the existing FOB, officials said. There is another FOB that connects the main line platforms at its northern end with Doraiswamy Subway.
