CHENNAI: While Smart City and Singara Chennai projects are planned and implemented across the city in various forms, accessible public infra remains an afterthought for persons with disabilities (PwDs). Case in point: Tiruvallur railway station, which serves over 1 lakh passengers every day, most of whom commute to Moore Market Complex and Arakkonam.
Wheelchair users and other disabled folks are unable to access routes to reach platforms via the Foot Overbridge (FOB) or the subway at the station, which is a vital hub in the western suburban section of the city’s rail network.
Regular commuters, civic activists, and PwDs shared a recent post on X (formerly Twitter), which has, once again, highlighted the daily hurdles faced by the disabled at the station. A Livingstone, president, Vasantham Federation of Differently Abled Persons, Tiruvallur district, and a former member of the Divisional Railway Users’ Consultative Committee (DRUCC), lamented, “While constructing the subway, officials promised a ramp facility. But, no such facility was ever built. Since there are no lifts or escalators near the stairs on Platform 1, wheelchair users must rely on pointsmen to open gates so they can cross the tracks. After the subway was built, the trolley paths were removed, leaving those in wheelchairs entirely dependent on others to cross.”
Although the station has an FOB connecting all 6 platforms, the absence of an escalator on Platform 1 forces the general public and PwDs to use the stairs. “The person seen crawling in the viral photo is a migrant worker who travels from Tiruvallur to Central railway station daily. It’s a nightmare for individuals with such physical challenges to access platforms by crossing railway tracks,” said a resident.
Concurring with him was TMN Deepak Nathan, state secretary, DMK’s Differently-abled wing, who added: “The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act mandates accessibility. You also have several Supreme Court orders that emphasise complete accessibility for PwDs. Compromising on even the bare minimum of accessibility is unacceptable.”
Despite the launch of the Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan) in December 2015, a nationwide initiative by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to achieve universal accessibility, progress remains slow. “Even a decade after the launch of this flagship scheme, TN lacks many facilities for PwDs. In an era of digital accessibility, the continued lack of physical access reflects a deep-seated apathy,” he added.
A civic activist in Tiruvallur, D Jayapaul Raj, piped in that since 2019, PwDs have urged the Southern Railway (SR) to provide elevator facilities at Tiruvallur. “The Amrit Bharat Station Scheme (ABSS) project, budgeted at Rs 28.82 crore, has been in limbo for more than two years,” he pointed out.
However, a senior official from SR stated that under the ABSS, Tiruvallur railway station will receive four lift facilities. “The project is nearing completion. The Chennai Divisional Railway Manager recently inspected all ABSS stations in the western suburban section. The inauguration is expected in March,” he stated.