The Railway Stations in the MRTS at Chennai are poorly maintained. Besides cleanliness, the lifts and escalators break-down frequently. Specifically, in Triplicane station, lifts and escalators are not working for more than 3 months. From the press clippings appearing in various news papers it could be understood that the poor maintenance is linked to the non-profitability of MRTS. One cannot understand why the profitability of this service alone is taken into consideration without clubbing with atleast with the earnings of suburban collections of Chennai as a whole i.e., Tambaram-Beach, Central-Arakkonam Services.
The MRTS Service has got high degree of social relevance in view of the follwing:
This links various important hospitals like Chennai GH, Kasturibai Gandhi Hospital (Triplicane), Royapettah Hospital, Cancer Institute, VHS, Malar Hospital, AMS Hospital, etc., Patients do travel frequently and suffer a lot to climb through the staircase.
There are various important educational institutions en-route like IIT, Madras, Anna University, Madras University, various schools and colleges.
There are various Central and State Government Offices en route like Custom House, Madras High Court, PWD Offices,
There are a number of temples, churches and mosques en-route.
There are a number of Software and BPO companies enroute.
The Marina Beach is nearer to various stations in the route and people could use extensively only if the lifts and escalators are maintained properly.
Now the State Secretariat is near Chindadripet Station and, ofcourse, this station has been taken care of now inview of the nearness to Secretariat.
There are various important places of general interest in the route like Governor’s Raj Bhavan, Childrens’ Park, Memorials of Gandhiji, Rajaji, Dr. Ambedkar, Annadurai, MGR.
In spite of all these, the poor collection is only due to non-maintenance of esacaltors and lifts as even people of young age could not get on the steps regularly. Hope the services would improve.
0 comments