The Chennai Division of Southern Railway has replaced 16 level crossings with subways since April 2025, reducing road-rail crossings across several sections in and around the division, according to a statement issued by the Railway on October 5. Five of the projects were completed between April and September 2026, while three more subways are under construction.
The Railway said 11 of the 16 completed subways were commissioned during the 2025-26 financial year. Each project has an estimated cost of about Rs 8 crore. The works are aimed at replacing level crossings with grade-separated passages, allowing road users and trains to move through separate routes rather than sharing the same crossing point.
Most of the completed works are located on the Arakkonam–Jolarpettai section. Subways have been commissioned at level crossings between Sevur and Katpadi, Latteri and Kavanur, Gudiyattam and Valathoor, and Jolarpettai and Somanayakkanpatti, among other locations.
Five additional crossings were eliminated during the current financial year. These include crossings between Chitteri and Mahendravadi, Katpadi and Latteri, Arambakkam and Tada, Elavur and Arambakkam, and Kadambattur and Thiruvalangadu. The locations span sections serving towns and settlements along the Chennai division’s suburban and regional rail network.
The programme also covers level crossing 11A between Washermanpet and Korukkupet on the MGR Chennai Central–Gudur section. Another completed work is level crossing 109 between Perani and Vikravandi on the Chennai Egmore–Villupuram section. These projects extend the crossing-elimination programme beyond the Arakkonam–Jolarpettai corridor to other important rail routes connected to Chennai.
Three more subways are currently under construction. They are planned at level crossing 57 in the Latteri railway station yard, level crossing 20 between Tiruvallur and Kadambattur, and level crossing 28 between Tiruvallangadu and Arakkonam. The Railway has set January 31, 2027, as the target completion date for all three works, with an estimated cost of about Rs 8 crore each.
The replacement of level crossings is a significant infrastructure intervention because it changes how roads and railway tracks intersect. At a level crossing, road movement is stopped when trains pass; a subway separates the two systems and removes the need for road users to cross the tracks at the same level. The Railway statement, however, did not provide location-wise details on construction timelines, traffic volumes, road diversions or the operational impact of the completed works.
The latest figures indicate that the Chennai Division is continuing to implement crossing-elimination works across multiple rail corridors, with the next publicly stated milestone being the completion of the three subways under construction by January 31, 2027.