Opening of the new passenger waiting rooms at Salem Railway Station by Hon’ble Member of Parliament, Salem , today (06.10.2015)

The new Passenger Waiting Halls situated at platform No.4 of the Salem Junction were declared open by Sri V. Pannerselvam, Hon’ble Member of Parliament, Salem Constituency, today (06.10.2015), in the presence of Sri Shubhranshu, Divisional Railway Manager, Salem Division, Southern Railway, and other officials of Salem Division.

In the two waiting rooms, one for general and other for Women passengers, sufficient number of toilets and bathrooms have been provided, along with 1 toilet in each waiting room, for the physically challenged persons. The seating capacity of the waiting rooms is 40 in general and 30 in Ladies’ Waiting Hall. Sufficient number of plug points have also been provided in the waiting halls, for charging of mobiles by the rail passengers. These two halls have been completed at a total cost of Rs.18 lakhs, as part of passenger amenities augmentation program at Salem Junction.

While addressing the media persons, Hon’ble Member of Parliament Sri V. Pannerselvam, lauded the DRM and other officials of Salem Division, for the efforts taken by them to better the passenger comfort in Salem Junction and other railway stations under their control. He mentioned that he has already taken up the matter of operating day time trains from Salem to Chennai Egmore and Kumbakonam, with the Hon’ble Minister for Railways, who has positively responded to the requests.  Hon’ble MP has further added that he will take up in the Parliament and with the Ministry of Railways, the matters of opening a second entry for Salem Junction to ease the congestion at the present entrance and installation of a Diesel Electric Multiple Unit (DEMU) Shed in Salem, which will facilitate introduction of DEMU trains originating from Salem to various places. He also assured that all help will be provided to Salem Division in the interest of rail passengers of Salem District. 

During his interaction with media persons, Sri Shubhranshu, Divisional Railway Manager, said that present waiting hall which is in use now, after shifting to the new facility, would be converted to airconditioned waiting hall for passengers, for which tenders have already been called for. He said that the hourly charges for the AC waiting hall would be Rs.15/-

Later, during his discussions with DRM, Hon’ble MP raised the issue of shifting the goods shed from Salem Junction to Salem Market Railway Station, for which DRM clarified that only the freight for Food Corporation of India, are being handled at Salem Junction at present, and shifting of the same to Salem Market would facilitate construction of more platforms and opening of second entry. Further, to a query by Hon’ble MP on water logging at the RUBs (Road under bridges) in Omalur area, DRM informed him that pumps have been provided to flush out the water stagnated in the said RUBs and the local bodies such as Panchayats nearby have been entrusted with their maintenance and payment of the electricity bills for the same. Due to the increased height of RUBs only, as per demand of the local public, the depth was getting increased, resulting in stagnation of water, it was explained.