Chennai Corporation planningbus bays outside MRTS Beach station

In a bid to ease the traffic congestion and connectivity woes of passengers who use the train-to-bus service at Beach station, Chennai Corporation is planning  larger bus bays outside the station.

Sources told City Express that a special review meeting, held recently, deliberated over removing some shops and installing bus bays by utilising the existing right-of-way of Rajaji Salai. Sources added that the bus bays are being planned to hold at least three buses at a time, inside the existing bus stop.

There are 41 shops that need to be evicted to provide the bus bays and it was felt that new places for the shops needed to be identified before they can be evicted.

Meanwhile, Corporation authorities are also planning to place the proposal of extending the foot-over bridge south of Chennai Beach station over Rajaji Salai, opposite the State Bank of India office before the ensuing council meeting.

This comes in the wake of CMDA taking up this issue with Southern Railway, which had rejected the proposal earlier. Meanwhile, Southern Railway is looking into a proposal to add a leg of stairs to the existing foot-over-bridge, just adjacent to Fort Station on either side of the Muthusamy Bridge Road. The choice of taking up the work by Southern Railway itself or leaving it to the Chennai Corporation was also discussed during the meeting.

The meeting also discussed improvements that need to be made to the access road from Periyar EVR Salai to the Park Town railway station, beneath the Pallavan Salai viaduct. It is believed that the Corporation of Chennai has issued instructions to attend to the issue in addition to its regular maintenance work.

In addition to these issues, it was also informed that the divisional railway manager of Southern Railway has stated that the issue of opening the passage has been taken up with headquarters.

The railways said that on approval, the passage will be opened and security arrangement through General Railway Police will be provided. Other issues were also disscused during the meeting, including the upkeep of Victoria Hostel road near Chepauk railway station by Chennai Corporation, routing of buses were also discussed and the widening of Canal Bank road near  Tiruvallikeni station.