Chennai: Measures are in full swing by Southern Railway post the St Thomas Mount railway station mishap, to prevent such unfortunate events.
According to sources, the railway is said to be planning to demolish a portion of platform 4 at St Thomas Mount railway station soon.
Recently, the wall at Pazhavanthangal railway station was demolished. The same thing was done at Saidapet and Meenambakkam railway stations. Soon after that the demolition measure is said to be coming up.
Platform 4 at the station was the place where people travelling on the footboard of an EMU train hit the concrete fence 24 June and five of the died.
Sources from the railway said the objective behind doing this was to realign the 4th track and increase the gap between the track and the concrete fence. Once the works are taken up, fast trains will be resumed, the sources say.
However, they say that the concrete fence (between platform 3 and 4) at the station cannot be removed as pillars of the rail overbridge connecting platform 2 and 3 are laid along the fence.
Instead of that the idea of demolishing the platform is being worked out. The width of the platform will be reduced and the tracks will be pulled towards the platform. Doing this will enhance the space between the track and the fence.
During the track realignment, the curves at track changeover at St Thomas Mount and a few others stations will also be straightened.
The formal approval for the reduction of platform width from the Commissioner of Railway Safety is being awaited, say the railway sources.
After the St Thomas Mount accident, Southern Railway cancelled fast locals, and since then there has been a lot of pressure from travellers staying in destinations that lie beyond Tambaram like Urapakkam, and Vandalur, to run fast locals again.
Passengers are looking forward to works like these that can help resume fast local train services. The works are being taken up to set right accident-prone spots so that fast local train services can be restored, say sources from Southern Railway.