Southern Railway Proposes Direct Link From Radha Nagar Subway to Chromepet Station After Access Gap Emerges

Southern Railway has proposed a new pedestrian accessway between the already commissioned Radha Nagar subway and Chromepet railway station in Chennai, after railway officials found that the underpass lies about 120 metres from the end of the station platforms and does not directly connect passengers to them.

The proposal addresses an important unfinished element of the Radha Nagar project: while the subway provides a grade-separated crossing beneath the railway corridor and includes pedestrian space, completing the crossing itself has not produced a seamless pedestrian journey into Chromepet station.

The distinction matters. The new development is a proposal for station access, not a new subway and not yet a construction project.

A New Connection for an Already-Opened Subway

The Radha Nagar subway was opened to traffic in January 2026 after years of delays involving land, design and coordination issues.

Its completion was intended to reduce dependence on the level crossing and improve movement between Radha Nagar and the GST Road side of Chromepet.

But Southern Railway has now identified a spatial problem between the completed underpass and the suburban railway station: the subway is reportedly around 120 metres away from the platform end, leaving pedestrians without a direct station connection.

The railway’s proposed accessway is intended to close that missing link.

No publicly verified information reviewed by Urban Acres establishes, however, that the accessway has received administrative or expenditure sanction, entered tendering, been awarded to a contractor or begun construction.

It should therefore be described strictly as a proposal.

The Larger Issue Is Not 120 Metres — It Is the Missing Interchange

For passengers, urban transport infrastructure operates as a chain:

Neighbourhood → Footpath → Subway → Station Entrance → Platform → Train

A break anywhere in that sequence can substantially weaken the usefulness of the completed investment.

Radha Nagar illustrates that problem.

An underpass can successfully remove conflict between road users and railway movements while still leaving railway passengers with an incomplete pedestrian interchange.

The relevant measure is therefore not whether a footpath exists inside the subway. It is whether a passenger can move continuously, safely and accessibly from Radha Nagar into Chromepet station without returning to an unsafe road environment, taking an unnecessarily circuitous route or crossing railway infrastructure informally.

Earlier Reports Said Direct Access Was Part of the Project

The new proposal also raises an accountability question because direct station connectivity was not presented as an entirely new requirement when the subway opened.

Reports before the January 2026 inauguration described a three-metre-wide pedestrian pathway as giving users direct access to Chromepet railway station and its ticket counters from both sides.

Before that, in February 2025, representatives had already called for a staircase connecting the subway with the railway platforms so passengers would not have to cross the tracks.

By April 2026, reporting on the commissioned facility indicated that pedestrians travelling towards the station still did not have the expected direct connection.

Southern Railway’s current proposal therefore appears less like a new mobility amenity than a response to an unresolved interchange requirement associated with the original project.

Project Stage: What Exists and What Does Not

This distinction should remain central to subsequent reporting. An accessway proposal should not be presented as a project under construction until the Railways discloses the relevant approvals and procurement stage.