The Tiruchi Railway Division has undertaken several infrastructure improvements aimed at enhancing safety and passenger convenience across major stations in its jurisdiction.

The railway division is constructing 18 new foot over bridges (FOBs), including five FOBs with a width of six metres at Ariyalur, Vriddhachalam, Villupuram, Mayiladuthurai and Kumbakonam, to cater to passenger rush in the future, while the remaining are of three-metre width, Divisional Railway Manager, Tiruchi, Balak Ram Negi said on Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters here, Mr. Balak Ram Negi said extensive platform upgradation works were being carried out at 81 stations comprising 70 platforms, five extensions and 26 resurfacing works. The improvements were aimed at enhancing passenger comfort, improving accessibility and ensuring safety.

Mr. Negi said the Tiruchi division operated a total of 16 pairs of special express trains, constituting an overall of 116 trains, from October 1 to cater to the heavy festival demand. In addition to special trains, additional coaches were attached to Uzhavan, Ananthapuri and Tiruchi-Thiruvananthapuram Intercity express trains to accommodate the increased passenger flow.

During the period from October 1, a total number of 21,68,395 passengers had travelled across Tiruchi division, registering a significant increase as compared to the corresponding period of last year. The division catered to 16,63,296 passengers in the unreserved ticket segment and 5,05,099 passengers in the reserved ticket segment during the festival season.

A War Room was constituted at Tiruchi division to function round the clock to attend to any unforeseen circumstances arising out of festival rush and actual display of real-time monitoring of major stations through CCTV cameras was done by a team of commercial and Railway Protection Force staff. Hourly pictures of trains, coaches and stations were taken and posted by the field staff in the war room group, which enabled decisions regarding ticket issuance and effective crowd control at subsequent stations, he said.

In order to meet the surge in demand, additional ticket counters were opened at key stations at Tiruchi, Thanjavur, Kumbakonam, Mayiladuthurai, Villupuram, Tiruvannamalai, Mannargudi and Vriddhachalam during the festival season.

In view of heavy rain, patrolling had been enforced in the division. The division had deputed watchmen to monitor water logging in identified limited use subways, or where it was anticipated. Vulnerable bridges were also being monitored to ensure safety of passengers and train operations, he added.

Tiruchi Railway Division takes up infra improvement works at stations to enhance passenger convenience