CHENNAI: People at Central metro station were in for a rude shock on Monday afternoon when close to 40 tiles fell from the side of the wall onto the escalator next to it. But Chennai Metro Rail Management denied the accident and said that the tiles were removed as part of corrective maintenance measures.
On Monday, at around 2.45 pm, employees present at Central metro station, saw tiles falling from the side of the wall on the escalator. At the time of the incident, no passengers used the escalator hence, no casualties were reported.
“As this happened in the afternoon, near the place where toilets are located, luckily no passengers were present. The tiles fell from the wall all at once and crashed into the escalator,” said an employee at the Central metro station.
This is the second time such an incident is happening at Central metro station. Previously, two to three tiles fell from the wall during March 2019 and a tile fell on a woman in Shenoy Nagar metro station during September 2018. She sustained 13 stitches on her head. But metro rail management said that a few tiles were removed from the station which was part of an inspection carried out in all stations.
“Due to the previous experience at Shenoy Nagar metro station, metro rail had decided to inspect all the stations. As a part of corrective maintenance measures, a few tiles at Central metro station have been removed yesterday. After inspection, removed tiles will be replaced with an aluminium composite panel,” said a press note from the metro rail.