Thousands of passengers suffer as staff go on strike; CMRL alleges automatic signalling system was tampered with, leading to glitches on Monday and Tuesday

Thousands of passengers suffered as Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) staff went on strike and two employees caused the automatic signalling system to malfunction, resulting in disruption of services on Monday and Tuesday.

The chilling possibility of sabotage of the signalling system is what brought a distinct element of fear into passengers’ minds on Tuesday. It was not until afternoon that the sabotage angle emerged, as the CMRL kept citing “glitches in the system” as the reason for the disruptions.

In a statement, CMRL said, “Two of our non-executive staff tampered with the automatic signalling system, leading to malfunction late in the evening on 29 April. CMRL extends sincere apologies to passengers for the inconvenience caused.”

CMRL on Tuesday afternoon said the direct services from Chennai Central to airport, which were stopped, had been restored.

“Inter-corridor train operation between Central to Airport has been restored successfully at 1.30 p.m. today (April 30). All Metro train services are running as per schedule,” the CMRL tweeted.

Complaint lodged

Later in the day, Chennai Metro Rail filed a complaint with the Koyambedu police station. Joint general manager Satheesh Prabhu, in the complaint, said 18 staff members attacked and abused him when he prevented them from entering the restricted area Operation Control Centre — from where the entire Chennai Metro Rail operations can be monitored. They also sabotaged the signalling equipment, which caused the failure of operations, creating panic and enormous inconvenience to passengers.

Many passengers complained that they could not use the services on Tuesday until they were restored at 1.30 p.m.

Ramani Krishnan, a resident of Vadpalani, said she missed her flight as the train was delayed and had to cancel meetings owing to the chaos.

On Twitter, Suresh (@ji_Sriram) said CMRL should have put in place emergency travel arrangements by bus or other vehicles, especially on the airport-Central Chennai routes, to help the stranded commuters. Many others on Twitter aired their grievances, including expressing outrage at the act of sabotage, but also complained of trains running slow and reduced frequency on the Chennai Airport to Washermanpet stretch, particularly even after CMRL claimed that it had restored the services.

Staff shortage

Others complained that their cards were not accepted, and at some stations, commuters complained that no one was available to issue travel tokens. This was probably caused by staff shortage at the stations, as CMRL claimed that it ran the services on Tuesday with only outsourced staff and five employees of CMRL.

As many as 250 staff of CMRL boycotted work in protest on Tuesday.