MRTS UNFINISHED AGENDA

Badly maintained stations hamper optimum patronage

V Ayyappan | TNN

Dec 25, 2009:

Chennai: The Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) services may have proved to be the best option for motorists to beat peak-hour road traffic, but the railways have failed to improve the condition of the stations. A couple of them are even incomplete.
The line is expected to remain under-utilised for the next two years, till the existing 20 km line from Chennai Beach to Velachery is connected to the main suburban line at St Thomas Mount.
Though patronage has improved to 70,000 passengers per day the railways seem to have missed their own deadline for completing work in seven stations along the line.
The commuters have to put up with leaky buildings, faulty or non-operative escalators and damaged fixtures at most of the MRTS stations.
The Metropolitan Transport Projects (MTP) had March 2009 as the deadline to complete work like steel roofing, flooring and other jobs at the Mundakanni Amman, Mandaveli, Greenways Road, Kotturpuram, Kasturba Nagar, Indira Nagar, Tiruvanmiyur, Taramani and Velachery stations. Except for Taramani and Velachery, the rest are in a bad shape.
Hard-pressed to find resources to maintain the stations, Southern Railway has asked for special funds from the railway board. It is estimated that Rs 7 crore will be required, to keep the 19 stations clean and maintained every year. “We plan to hire a private company to maintain the stations,” said divisional railway manager S K Kulshrestha. Works on the 3.5-km Velachery-Adambakkam stretch where the alignment follows the Inner Ring Road (IRR) are progressing briskly.
However, the railways feel the project will be delayed because of land acquisition trouble expected to crop up on the stretch between Adambakkam and St Thomas Mount.