At last, the escalators, promised a few years back, are all set to come up at Madurai railway junction soon.
Work for supply of three sets of escalators and their erection had been awarded, Additional Divisional Railway Manager T. Venkata Subramanaian said.
The escalators would be erected along the (new) concrete foot over-bridge connecting platforms one, eight and two and three at a cost of Rs. 5.6 crore.
The foot over-bridge would be extended on both sides of the western and eastern (main) entries so that the escalators there could be erected along the flight of stairs. “The provision for climbing up and down through the escalators would be provided adjacent to each other at all the three places,” Divisional Engineer K.R. Prakash...
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said. The civil work for constructing shelters over the escalators would begin soon. Simultaneously, the contractor would supply the machinery and begin erection work, he added.
The project would save the passengers, especially the aged, children and those carrying heavy luggage, the hardship of climbing up and down the flight of stairs to reach platforms two and three and to get out of the station from these platforms.
The railway authorities have also planned to minimise the number of trains being operated from other platforms (where escalators would not be provided) to the possible extent for the benefit of passengers.
PLAN FOR PLATFORM 8
The officials have proposed to increase the length of platform eight so that it could accommodate trains with 24 coaches. As of now, it can handle trains only with 16 coaches. “Once this work is completed, we can consider handling the Chennai-Madurai trains on platform eight, thus decongesting passenger traffic at the main entrance,” he said.
After these works are completed, passengers would have hassle-free access to four of the eight platforms — one, two, three and eight — at the junction.