CHENNAI: In yet another measure to improve the safety of rail passengers in the suburban section, the Chennai division of Southern Railway has commenced works to heighten the platform at Park, one of busiest stations in the Beach-Chengalpattu section.
The works was taken up recently with an objective of reducing the gap between the coach floor and platform so as to reduce the risk of passengers falling while boarding and de-boarding the trains.
While the Railway Board norms mandate that the height between tracks and platform be 840 mm for suburban section, platforms at Park, Fort and Egmore stations have heights ranging from 600 to 760 mm. The 20 to 25 cm gap between coach floor of suburban trains and platforms has been causing hardship to the elderly and differently-abled passengers at Park station.
Though the gauge conversion works between Egmore and Beach were completed in 2005, the platform height has not been increased for years mainly because all platforms in this stretch have curvy tracks. The higher platforms in curvy lines will result in reducing the train speed.
“Due to sharp curves between Egmore and Park, suburban trains are operated at 50 km speed. With the increase in platform height the train speed will be reduced and as a result, travel time of all suburban trains will go up by 60 to 90 seconds,” a senior official from the Chennai division told Express.
The decision was a fallout of the recommendation of Southern Circle Railway Safety Commissioner K A Manoharan who conducted an inquiry into the St. Thomas Mount station accident that claimed the lives of five rail passengers on July 24.
The safety commissioner had suggested increasing the height of platforms at all suburban stations.“Concrete slabs are being placed at the corners of platform in order to increase the height by 10 cm. Platform height will be increased in three platforms at an estimated `12 lakh,” added the official.
The Park station has been witnessing frequent incidents of rail passengers falling from the trains while boarding and deboarding the trains. This is mainly because many passengers cross from platform 1 to 3 through train coaches.
The Park station receives passengers from the Arakkonam and Gummidipoondi suburban sections as it provides connectivity for Tambaram and Chengalpattu local trains. The station has a footfall of about 1.5 lakh passengers a day.