Tuesday, Sep 21, 2004
Tuesday, Sep 21, 2004 |
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Chennai
By Our Staff Reporter
CHENNAI, SEPT. 20. Chromepet is a well-populated residential suburb, but its residents have good reason to feel shortchanged. For one thing, they are still waiting for a flyover on the busy GST Road, which should have been completed by November 2002. For another, they have to contend with long and frequent power cuts, which not only cripple the signals, resulting in slow running of trains. If that wasn't bad enough, once the sun sets, they have to grope their way along the platforms in almost complete darkness; and it isn't easy given that the platforms are under renovation. There's worse: if they need a ticket, they have to buy it from a ticketing office functioning by candlelight, because there is no power. This is the situation in Chromepet for the last week. And that too at a station that caters to students of several colleges, including a women's college, and factory workers. There's more: the station has a chief clerk but no Station Master. The counter clerks, who are seated on the railway foot-over bridge, cannot leave their places to try and make other arrangements, says V. Santhanam, president of the Federation of Residents Welfare Associations of Pallavaram Municipality.
People hurt
"The station has a generator on stand-by but it can be switched on only by electrical department staff who come either from Tambaram or Egmore." Understandably enough, in the past few days there have been instances of people stumbling over the uneven platforms and of the elderly getting hurt in the process. Southern Railways officials admit that trains are frequently delayed. S. Rangarajan, additional divisional manager, said the conversion of metre gauge lines to broad gauge had taken its toll. "We are racing against time." The deadline for the conversion work is October-end, he said. Though the railway officials said power tripping could be because of the work, according to Mr. Santhanam there were frequent power cuts even otherwise. Power supply gets suspended even after a spell of rain, residents said. The railway officials say this could be because the cables were laid 30 to 40 years ago, and possible leakage during rains.
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