Southern Railway has arranged wheelchair support and porter assistance for disabled passengers at Chennai Egmore and Tambaram railway stations after repeated complaints about access to platforms during ongoing redevelopment work.
The temporary facility will allow wheelchair users to be escorted to their trains and helped while boarding. The Railways has also provided a dedicated helpline for Divyangjan passengers who want to book mobility support. Information about porter assistance and the prescribed charges has been displayed at suitable locations inside both stations.
At Egmore, 18 wheelchairs capable of accessing all platforms will be available from the Gandhi Irwin Road entrance. Signage at the main entrance will direct passengers towards the route. The assistance will remain in place until a new footbridge connecting the station’s platforms is commissioned, Southern Railway said.
The new Egmore footbridge, being constructed between Gandhi Irwin Road and Poonamallee Road, will be 18 metres wide. It will include six escalators and five lifts, with access to all platforms. The facility is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
The arrangement follows concerns raised by wheelchair users over access from the 11A side and the Metro-side entrance during the redevelopment. The temporary support is intended to address the gap until the new bridge and vertical-access systems become operational, while keeping the existing station routes in use during construction.
At Tambaram, Southern Railway has stationed 13 wheelchairs. The division has also completed a feasibility study for temporarily operating battery-operated vehicles between platform 1A and other parts of the station to ease passenger movement during the redevelopment.
An 8-metre-wide footbridge connecting all platforms at Tambaram is under construction. The bridge will have lifts and escalators and is expected to be completed by the end of 2026. Until then, passengers requiring mobility assistance can use the wheelchair and porter arrangements announced by the railway division.
The immediate support measures place the operational responsibility on station staff and porters while permanent accessibility infrastructure is being built. The next milestones are the commissioning of the Egmore footbridge by the end of the year and the completion of the Tambaram footbridge by the end of 2026.
