Commuters in peril over delayed construction of Perungalathur subway

According to railway sources, Perungalathur railway station is one of the busiest stations in the south suburbs of Chennai and records an average  footfall of over 30,000 people every day. 

After many requests from the commuters and frequent incidents of public getting run over by speeding trains, railways decided to build a pedestrian subway connecting the GST road, railway station and Perungalathur suburb. 

The proposal was made in 2015 with an estimate of Rs 2 crore and in 2016, the work began and the estimation was revised to Rs 3 crore. The project was expected to be completed in six months. 

However, the work did not happen regularly and on November 2017, all the construction activity came to a complete halt due to rain. Later, in January, the work resumed and the officials promised to complete the construction of the subway in February and said that the project will be inaugurated on March, claimed residents of Perungulathur. 

 “The monsoon season is almost here and the year is coming to the end but the construction of the subway is yet to be completed. While officials claim that the work is in final stage, for the past two months no progress has been recorded,” said R Meena, a regular commuter from Perungalathur. 

“The railway station does not have enough lighting at night, and moreover, as the subway work has not been completed we have to climb a 4-feet wall and cross the railway tracks to reach the station. Senior citizens are having a hard time,” said P Vignesh Kumar, a social activist from Perungalathur. Southern railway official sources claimed that the contractor assigned to do the job had not received the payment for completing a portion of the works causing the delay.  

Railway Divisional Engineer R Srinivasan said that he could not give an exact timeframe as to when the work would be completed.