Chennai: Delayed by months, work on the construction of foot over bridges (FOBs) at St Thomas Mount and Guindy connecting the suburban railway and metro stations is to begin shortly.
Providing an integrated means of connecting public transport users, the FOBs at both the stations will connect passengers of suburban trains to the metro station.
Along with the FOB, lifts and escalators will be provided on each platform at the suburban stations.
While the work on the FOB and lift installation will be done by railways, the funding for Guindy will be fully done by Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) and for St Thomas Mount, half the funding will be done by CMRL, the other half by railways.
“The FOB at Guindy will connect both stations and Grand Southern Trunk (GST) Road and Race Course Roads. On August 16, the request was forwarded to CMRL for transfer of funds, and once the funds are received, the work would begin,” said a senior official from Southern Railway.
“The over bridge will help commuters of metro rail and EMUs in changing the mode of transport without hassles. With Metro Rail expanding across the city, we commuters look forward to many such developments,” said Satish Kumar K, a rail commuter.
A joint inspection of the sites by CMRL and railways in April led to an agreement over the provision of FOBs. “It would be more helpful if a foot overbridge could connect the Velachery road to MKN road at Guindy, as that would help a number of commuters from Velachery,” said P. Sathyanarana, a commuter.
