Kamal Ghorui
Chennai: A study of curved metro station designs by construction team of Southern Railway is underway to fix safety flaws at Adambakkam MRTS station. Trains have not been halting there since the MRTS extension from Velachery to St Thomas Mount railway station was commissioned on Mar 14. This was owing to concerns over a wide gap between coaches and the platform flagged by the CCRS.Sources said the chief commissioner of railway safety (CCRS), during his inspection of the 4.5-km stretch, pointed out the widening gap between the rolling stock and the platform at Adambakkam station and registered it as a safety concern, as passengers might fall through the gap while boarding and deboarding the trains when they briefly halt at the station.Railway officials said the additional gap was due to the slanting of cars as Adambakkam station is on a curve, unlike other MRTS stations. “As suggested by CCRS, the chief administrative officer (construction) of Southern Railway has been studying metro stations set up on a curve to come up with a solution. Depending on the outcome, corrections will be made at Adambakkam and it will soon be brought into operation,” said an official. The study will suggest if platforms can be extended to reduce gap or whether corrections will have to be carried out on the tracks. Proposed in 2008, the phase two extension of MRTS up to St Thomas Mount, connecting with Tambaram-Beach suburban stretch, was completed after 18 years due to various bottlenecks, including land acquisition and delays in construction. The stretch has three stations after Velachery, but during the launch, the railways announced that trains would stop at Puzhuthivakkam station before terminating at St Thomas Mount and not stop at Adambakkam. Currently, 86 services are operated between Chennai Beach and St Thomas Mount (43 on each direction) on the MRTS stretch, apart from a few services up to Velachery from both terminals.
