Tamil Nadu

Two die, railway platform caves in as Kovai bears the brunt of heavy rains

Express News Service

Two persons lost their lives in the heavy rains that lashed the district on Sunday.

Parvathi (51), a resident of Ho Chi Minh Colony in Sivananda Colony, was returning home on Sunday evening when she fell through the manhole of a drainage canal after the lid fell inside the canal near the ARC Junction.

Even as the locals alerted the fire service, heavy rains and power cuts hampered rescue operations.

After the storm water resided on Monday morning, the locals spotted a body in the open drainage at Lakshmi Nagar near Textool Bridge. Later it was identified as that of Parvathy’s.

“The rain waters have washed her for nearly three km. We searched for nearly one-and-a-half km last night, but could not find the victim. She should have succumbed last night itself,” said a personnel who was part of the rescue operation.

In a similar incident, a 52-year-old man also fell into an open drainage line at Jeeva Nagar at GN Mills and died. The incident came to light only on Monday morning, when the public noticed his body and informed the Thudiyalur police.

Police said Karuppan was an alcoholic and could have fallen into the canal in an inebriated condition.

The Coimbatore railway station also bore the brunt of rains as platform number three caved in on Sunday night.The flooring tiles of third platform at the station - under which the construction for the second subway is on - collapsed due to the rains causing a huge hole.

“Fortunately, it was late in the night and no train scheduled to arrive at the platform  at that time, there was not a single person at the spot. However, we have cordoned off the station as a safety measure,” said Station Manager Chandrasekhar.

When asked if this would affect the train traffic, he said, “We have sufficient number of platforms to handle the traffic. In any case, we are expecting the platform to be restored by Tuesday evening.” The heavy downpour has hampered the construction of second subway, asekhar added.

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