Drug stores continues to elude heritage Chennai Central station

A station with a daily footfall of well over a lakh, Chennai Central does not have a proper drug store either in the station or in its vicinity. Passengers ought to travel some distance on Wall Tax Road or Sowcarpet to buy even the most basic of drugs, especially at night when even the very few stalls at the station don’t do brisk business and most of the neighbourhood remain shut. 

Though the station has an emergency support facility run by a private hospital there, the station lacks a ‘takeaway’ drug store where one can buy a pill in retail. B Saravanan, a regular traveler between Chennai and Coimbatore says; “I did not understand the need to have a drug store at Central till last week when I came in a hurry to board Cheran Express. I had severe headache. I ran around the station. There was one stall which sold a few drugs for emergency, but it was more a fruit stall. I had no other go but to take an auto from Central to Wall Tax Road. Otherwise, I would have missed my train. This could happen to anyone. It is time they opened a drug store there.” 

Travelers who cannot afford to take autorickshaw to buy drugs or do not have enough time have no other go but board a train sick. DTNext has reliably learnt that Southern Railway (SR) is in touch with a leading corporate hospital to open a modest drug store at the station. The mini pharmacy is most likely come up near the recently opened Women Facilitation Centre in the old concourse area. The pharmacy has been planned near the women Centre so that essentials like sanitary napkins could be made available to traveling women at the facilitation Centre. 

When contacted, chief public relation officer of southern railway Dhananjeyan, who admitted that the station had a drug store earlier, told DTNext that they have an emergency support facility to treat patients for all sorts of emergency.