When a sudden spell of rain descend on the city like it did on Wednesday, Chennai Metro Rail station roofs start leaking.
At many stations including Government Estate, Chennai Central, Anna Nagar Tower, Shenoy Nagar, Alandur and Nandanam, rainwater was leaking from the roof of the concourse level, sources said.
Staff in some stations placed buckets to collect the water. This is not the first time that the roof of Chennai Metro Rail stations have developed leaks. It has happened in the past too. Most of these stations have been functional only for a few years.
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Sources said the leak was because of inefficient water proofing work during construction. “It is shameful that after spending so much on construction, the quality is substandard. The underground stations’ roofs have concrete slabs and the elevated ones have metal sheets. Instead of doing repair works, they have to find out the root cause of the problem and rectify it,” an official said.
An engineering expert at IIT-Madras said that water leakage should not happen through concrete slabs. “It could be a design flaw if the roof with concrete slabs are having leakages. The problem is that they think as the city barely gets rain, this may not be a huge issue. But they have to know that it will be a costly affair to carry out good repair work; instead, they may want to build it right the first time itself,” he added.
Some passengers even took to Twitter and posted photos and videos as well. C.R. Aditya through his handle @iCRAditya posted: “@cmrlofficial @CMOTamilNadu the roof of Nandanam Metro Station leaking through the scaffolding. Please make sure these are water proofed - it looks bad.”
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According to officials of Chennai Metro Rail Limited, they have been taking steps to rectify the issue at the earliest. “We are looking into this issue and will resolve it soon,” an official said.