Escalators in the railway stations in Chennai and its suburbs soon
Posted on: 02/Feb/2018 9:43:02 AM
It is known that old people and many differently able people find it tough to walk through staircases present in the railway stations. The latest news is on Thursday 1st February 2018 finance minster Mr Arun Jaitley has announced that escalators would be provided at the railway stations having daily footfall of 25000. As a result of this announcement by the finance minister it is now said that atleast 12 railway stations in and around Chennai would soon get escalator.
It is worthy to note that railway stations such as Guindy, Pazhavanthangal, Chromepet, Avadi plus others like Chengalpet, Thiruvallur etc would have this escalator facility. In the financial year 2016-17 the above mentioned railway stations had as many as 25000 passengers daily.
There are few doubts regarding the implementation of this escalator facility at the railway stations as it is still not clear whether the factor to be considered for providing this facility is originating passengers or whether it is footfall present at the station. The officials belonging to the Southern railway are not able to decide clearly.
According to an official more railway stations would have this escalator facility if total footfall factor is considered as the factor. He also spoke about how railway board’s advice would be important.
It is now revealed that the escalators present at the MRTS railway stations along Chennai Beach – Velachery route are not maintained well and the escalators don’t function during some time in a day.
It must be noted that in railway stations like Tambaram and Chennai Egmore there are either one or two escalators and these escalators are highly sought after by the passengers.
This announcement of providing escalators at the railway stations is applauded by Mr K. Bhaskar who is a member of Chennai Divisional Rail Users Consultative Committee. He expressed his thoughts and said proper survey regarding the footfalls at the suburban railway stations must be maintained by the railways.
