CHENNAI: Years in existence, multiple renovation attempts, lakhs of passengers commuting everyday, and yet the lack of access to basic amenities such hygienic drinking water is a problem that Southern Railway fails to address.
Be it a suburban station in Royapuram or a newly developed, multi-modal MRTS station such as St Thomas Mount, almost every station maintained by the Southern Railway for Chennai and its suburbs has a drinking water facility that either remains damaged, poorly maintained, or completely non-functional.
“Some drinking water points remain dry for several days,” said a regular passenger in Trisulam. While passengers commuting via major stations such as Guindy, St Thomas Mount, and Tambaram are dealing with 1 or 2 broken or unusable drinking water points, the case is not similar for all.
The access points in several stations including Pallavaram, Tirusulam, Pazhavanthangal and Mambalam are ill-maintained and completely undrinkable. The situation has forced many passengers to depend on bottled water despite the availability of facilities meant for free public use.
“Not everyone can afford to buy bottled water. Development works are important, but maintaining basic amenities should be given priority,” said Dharani, a commuter at Palavanthangal station.
“We’ve been actively redeveloping stations and the problems will be rectified,” said a SR official.
However, even stations that are newly redeveloped under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme, which aims to enhance passenger amenities and modernise station infrastructure, face the same fate.
At St Thomas Mount station, where redevelopment works have just completed, drinking water points are poorly maintained. Damaged taps, dry water outlets and a lack of regular upkeep raise concerns that the maintenance of essential passenger amenities has not kept pace with ongoing infrastructure improvements.