Additional parking area at Salem Jn. being expanded

The second parking lot in Salem Railway Junction will be expanded to accommodate more vehicles.

The second parking lot in Salem Railway Junction will be expanded to accommodate more vehicles.   | Photo Credit: E. Lakshmi Narayanan

Works to be completed and facility handed over to contractor by month-end

The existing additional vehicle parking lot near the escalator facility at Salem Railway Junction is being expanded much to the joy of the commuters.

The expanded facility will enable in parking more vehicles, both four-wheelers and two-wheelers, thus reducing congestion on the main parking area in front of the main entrance of the junction.

According to Railway sources, the additional parking lot was so far functioning in a small area on an uneven ground. The stagnation of the rain water during the monsoon period posed much hardship to the vehicle owners parking their vehicles here.

Consumer organisations and the people have been demanding that the Salem Railway Division expand the parking facility with concrete ground. The expanded parking lot will be on an area of 4,600 square m. The work on the project has already commenced, sources told ‘The Hindu’.

The parcel office functioning functioning in this area has already been shifted to the Jolarpet end of the Salem Railway Junction. The old buildings situated on this spot have already been demolished for the expansion work. The expanded facility will get pucca pavement, the sources said.

All the expansion works will be completed and the facility will be handed over to the contractor by this month-end, the sources said.

The travelling public, consumer and rail users bodies have welcomed the move. However, they are of the view that a multi-storyed parking lot is the need of the hour and this alone will solve the congestion in the existing parking lots in the years ahead, when the strength of vehicles is expected to increase multifold.

A cross-section of the commuters say that due to inadequate space in the existing parking lots, many cars are parked on the already narrow Khader Khan Road opposite the Junction, affecting the free flow of traffic.

This led to frequent traffic snarls on the adjacent roads leading to the station.

The Railway authorities and the city traffic police should ban parking of cars on both sides of the Khader Khan Road and ensure free movement of traffic, says E. Lakshman, a youth consumer activist.