Railway stations go green between tracks
The engineering department has started to maintain gardens in vacant places
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2014-12-07 06:44 GMT
Chennai: Railway stations in the city are getting greener with flower plants and grass. The engineering department of railway stations has started to maintain gardens in vacant places in stations, like the one recently created at Mambalam railway station.
A 50-meter stretch between the two railway tracks on the east side below the foot overbridge at West Mambalam station has been converted into a garden with a variety of flowering plants, just to do away with dumping in the spot.
“The nearby commercial complexes dump all their waste in the station premises. Though we clean it several times, the garbage accumulates once again within a day,” says S. Srinivasan, stationmaster of West Mambalam railway station.
Srinivasan says that the staff were surprised to see that the miscreants were discouraged from throwing their waste into the station after the garden was set up at the spot. “Now it is more than two months since the garden has been set up and the conservancy staff are much relieved as the commercial complexes have stopped dumping garbage here,” he says.
Similar gardens are also maintained at Tambaram railway station and Basin Bridge and the idea is to be implemented also at St. Thomas Mount and Guindy railway stations in the future. “Whereever we find vacant places we have been setting up gardens. About 30 varieties of plants are being planted,” explains B. Shankar, section engineer, Saidapet, adding that the idea also prevents people urinating in these lands.
“The west side of Mambalam station will also be gardened soon,” he says. “The garden also prevents people from crossing across the tracks, stepping over the plants. This must be followed in every station,” says B. Muruganantham, a commuter at Mambalam railway station.