Rain exposes poor Metro Rail work

The staff at CMBT Metro Rail station had placed buckets at the concourse level to collect water leaking from the roof.

Buckets placed on the stairway at the CMBT Metro Rail station on Wednesday following heavy rains.

Just a month after launch, poor quality of work at the Chennai Metro Rail stations has been exposed, with the roofs leaking and platforms flooded with water following heavy rain.

Commuters who travelled through Koyambedu and CMBT stations on Wednesday had to carefully tread on the granite flooring and staircases filled with pool of water at various places. For a brief period, one of the escalators in Koyambedu station stopped working.

The staff at CMBT Metro Rail station had placed buckets at the concourse level to collect water leaking from the roof. Commuters were clearly disappointed at the dismal state of stations, What is worse is that it was just 3 centimetres of rainfall (in Nungambakkam and 2 cm in Meenambakkam).

S. Gopalakrishnan, a first time rider of Chennai Metro Rail, looked at the leaking roofs in disbelief.

“I knew the traffic would grow worse during rain and hence chose to take Metro Rail to Alandur. I was quite eager to travel since it is my first ride; but I’m quite disappointed with the standard. A recently inaugurated building cannot afford to have leaking roofs. This place looks similar to the Chennai airport that had similar problems,” he added.

G.K. Dinakaran said he didn’t expect the stations to have buckets to collect leaking water.

“The floor is slippery in many places and it is difficult to spot pools of water on the granite flooring. Elderly persons may have to be careful or else they may slip and fall,” he added.

Officials of Chennai Metro Rail Limited said they had deployed staff to clean the stations. “Also, we are taking steps to remove the water in stations. The problem will be sorted out soon,” an official said.