The Southern Railway has put in place an LED lighting system at Chennai Central station, which would help in bringing down the station’s energy requirement and its monthly expenditure.
Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Saturday inaugurated several projects in the Chennai division, including the LEDs (light-emitting diodes) at Central, through video-conferencing.
Southern Railway replaced 2,388 conventional lights with 2,402 energy efficient LED lights of various wattages at the railway station at a cost of Rs 50lakh. This energy efficient lighting will result in reduction in carbon emission of 262MT per year and a savings to the tune of 60lakh units and Rs 60 lakh per month to railways. Railways had been installing the lights in a phased.
In addition to this, ties like escalators, booking office, WiFi. Two escalators were opened at platform 1 and 2 at Chepauk MRTS station in place of the defective ones at a cost of Rs1.36 crore while hi-speed Wi-Fi facility was commissioned in collaboration with Google to cover all the 6 platforms, circulating area and VIP lounge at Chengalpet Jn station and Katpadi.
Speaking at the function, union minister and BJP leader from Tamil Nadu Pon Radhakrishnan urged the minister to sanction funds to complete railway projects in Tamil Nadu. He added that the TN government should part with land for the Chennai-Cuddalore ECR railway line and the line up to Kanyakumari for doubling. He also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had adopted Tamil Nadu and was implementing many projects in the state including in railways.
Other facilities that were opened included, new foot over bridge at Tiruvottiyur Station, booking office at Western side of Guindy Station, information centre and CCTV cameras at KatpadiJn station and food plaza at Arakkonam Jn station.
By Baishakhi Dutta
