On one hand, we see Union Railway Ministry touting projects like the Amrit Bharat scheme to upgrade the infrastructure of the passengers at the railway stations and 15 stations have been selected for this. On the other hand, we see a lack of basic amenities at the important railway termini like Egmore and Tambaram etc.
Passengers at the railway stations like Egmore and Tambaram etc in Chennai find it very difficult due to lack of basic amenities like lack of taps for drinking water pipes, non functional toilets, very highly present FOB forcing the senior citizens and differently able persons to climb stairs, broken platforms etc.
According to Mr. Dayanand Krishnan, a social activist, most of the FOBs are very high without any lifts. He added that the escalators were unfriendly for the long distance commuters. He threw light on how the work on FOB has been going very slow. At the important Egmore railway station that is only second to central railway station the escalator has been out of use for more than 6 months now. In the same way, the escalator at Tambaram termini is in bad condition. In the railway stations in Nungambakkam and Mambalam etc, the toilets remained closed and this has been causing issues for the passengers.
It was brought to light by Mr. K. Raghuraman, TN state member of the advisory board for the differently abled that none of the facilities were constructed for the benefit of the differently abled passengers. According to the divisional railway manager Mr. B. Viswanath Eerya all the railway stations would be modernised.