Egmore station yearns to do more service
The popular establishment of this city is 110 years old
By SVS, NN/Chennai, @svs037
It was in the year 1908 that No 1 Boat Mail left Egmore Railway Station for its destination, Dhanushkodi. That was the first train said to be operated from the famed railway station about 110 years ago, from then on there was no looking back.
Egmore railway station has moved forward in the course of time adding various amenities to itself to render better service to passengers. Presently the station is 110 years old, as it celebrated its 110th birthday on Monday (11 June), News Today ventured ahead to know more in this regard.
The building of Egmore Railway Station was constructed in 1908, it was on 11 June 1908 that British authorities took over and began running trains, said a senior official at the station. A small extension work was taken up in 1930.
The major extension work was taken up in 1980 on the main building of Egmore station. The first floor holds passenger reservation counter, the ground floor holds a vegetarian refreshment stall, offices of station officials.
The mainbuilding had a width of 74ft and a length of 300 ft in 1908. At present the main building has a length of 198.4 metres, breadth of 21 metres on westend and 9.8 metres on eastend, said the official. Currently, station handles about 55 trains per day on an average (both incoming and outgoing).
Presently station has a footfall of one-and-half lakh people in a day (both long distance and local train). Moment was worth recalling in 1997 – 1998, for that was the time when the tracks were convereted into broad gauge for the mainline. It was only in 2004, that metre guage became a history for local trains.
Last metre gauge local train left Egmore after being flagged off by R Velu, the then Union Minister of State for Railways. Metre gauge local bid goodbye after a glorious service of 73 years. Minister Velu also flagged off the first broad guage service on 1 November 2004.
What was known as boarding point for south parts of the state once, after conversion to broadguage, trains began operating for destinations like Coimbatore, Salem that lie in the western part of the state, reminded the official. Egmore has now opened train services to Hyderabad in the north, Howrah in the east and Bombay in the west also.
For rendering better service station is now witnessing improvements. The two foot-over-bridges on east and west side of the station are being widened. Escalators will be provided at Platform 7 and Platform 8/9. The staircase on platform 10 and 11 where local trains halt is being widened, an escalator there also will come up, said senior official. The aim is to give more better service as the time goes ahead at this famed train boarding point.
