CHENNAI: Garbage dumping on vacant spaces has become a perennial issue across the city. Even railway stations are not spared from the same. The railway tracks at Tambaram Sanatorium railway station have turned an eyesore to the public.
In many cases, the lethargic attitude of the officials in clearing the waste and the lack of civic sense from the public add to the chaos.
“The railway tracks have become a huge garbage area. During rains, the garbage chokes the flow of rainwater. Garbage fills the water channels and some reach the water bodies spoiling the water,” said P Viswanathan, the convener of the Chitlapakkam Residents Associations Coordination Committee.
“Southern Railway and its Chennai Division must arrange mass cleaning programmes to remove all garbage accumulated along the railway tracks and in railway stations before the onset of monsoon. Also, clean all culverts under the railway tracks to ensure free flow of rainwater,” Viswanathan said.
The regular commuters said that the issue is not restricted to the Tambaram Sanitorium railway station but is common in most of the stations across the division.
An awareness must be created among the commuters to ensure the waste is dumped in the dust bins and not thrown in the station premises or trains. Even the first-class coaches in the EMU trains are filled with garbage, a commuter said. The Southern Railway officials were not reachable.