Although there has been a visible improvement in the number of toilets being provided at suburban and Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) railway stations, including the quality of construction, most toilets along the southern, western, and northwestern lines need a lot of improvement and proper maintenance.
These were the findings of an audit of the availability and quality of toilets at railway stations in the Chennai suburban network made by Satta Panchayat Iyakkam, a non-governmental organisation, on Wednesday.
Senthil Arumugham from the NGO told reporters at Park station that volunteers visited 33 stations in the suburban network and found that the maintenance of the toilets ranged from good to very poor.
For instance, sewage overflowed around the pay-and-use toilet at the southern end of the platform at Kodambakkam. . “People prefer to urinate around the toilet as the stagnated sewage is a put off,” the staff said.
Mr. Arumugham said that toilets at Kotturpuram were neat, but were locked up so long. Toilets on other stations on MRTS route were satisfactory, but here again, only on one direction — from Velachery to Chennai Beach. According to a volunteer, toilets in some stations on the Moore Market Complex-Tiruvallur route were very bad. In Korattur, they noticed a stranger sleeping inside a toilet that was open. The toilet, however, was non-functional.
Women workers in pay-and-use toilets engaged by the contractors were on long hours of duty — from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and paid Rs. 3,000 a month, apart from the day’s collection or a part of it.
The NGO members said that drinking water taps were broken at many stations and in those that had taps with enough water, the basins were bad.
Passengers’ attitude
However, commuters at Egmore station said that while facilities were enough, many passengers did not take care of the facilities, even damaging the taps and tiles.
Southern Railway officials said they would keep a close watch on the amenities to ensure that it worked and was well maintained.
Feedback from commuters would be given top priority and improvements made accordingly, they added.
