Triplicane boasts of
many historic places laced with spiritualism.
Triplicane boasting the famous Marina beach, has a Railway station too … ‘Thiruvallikkeni’ station on Chennai MRTS, that opened to public in Oct 1997. The station is an elevated one built on the
banks of the Buckingham Canal. It is the
sixth station on the MRTS line to Velachery from Chennai beach station.
Parakkum
rail (not the full path though !) prior to opening of Chennai Metro was the
glamorous queen; now Chennai Metro runs upto to Nehru Nagar of which upto
Thirumangalam it runs underground and then on elevated track - MRTS
is Chennai Mass Rapid Transit System, a
state-owned subsidiary of Indian Railways, the other elevated railway line. The
line runs a distance of 19.34 km (12.02
mi) with 18 stations in between, from Beach to Velachery.
Do you
know that Indian Railways Act 1989 provides that Railway administration is
liable to pay compensation for loss of
life or injury to bonafide rail passengers, who become victims of untoward
incidents such as terrorist acts, violent attack, robbery, dacoity, rioting,
shoot-out or arson by any persons in or on any train carrying passengers,
waiting hall, cloak room, reservation or booking office, platform, any place
within the precincts of a railway station or the accidental falling of any
passenger from a train carrying passengers.
Under these Rules, the amount of compensation payable in case of death
is Rs.4 lakhs. For injuries the amount varies from Rs.32,000/- to Rs.4,00,000/-
depending on the nature of injury sustained.All persons who are bonfide
passengers travelling on a valid ticket in a passenger carrying train as also
platform ticket holders are insured under the scheme.
By schedule, it
would take 45 minutes for reaching Velachery from Chennai Beach and vice
versa. Sometime back the trains were
running late as there were sections which had to be negotiated slowly due to
various works taking place. A couple of
days back, Times of India, Chennai edition reported that the trains on Chennai Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS),
the city's elevated suburban railway network, between Chennai Beach and
Velachery aren't late any more but are, in fact, running ahead of time.
The report stated :
Officials of Southern Railwayand visibly delighted passengers said — and rides
by this correspondent confirmed — that rakes now make the 45-minute journey in
41 minutes. The report added that with MRTS officials imposing several speed
restrictions on trains on the line to complete track renewal work, the ride
earlier took up to 60 minutes.Given that the corridor connects government
offices, IT parks and Chennai Central railway station, the 4 minutes that
commuters save could make the difference between arriving for work early or
late — with the latter possibly resulting in the docking of half-a-day's salary
! The MRTS section caters to 1.1 lakh
commuters every day, with people from Arakkonam and Gummidipoondi using
cross-sector services to get to localities like Chepauk and Mylapore in the
heart of the city as well as neighbourhoods like Adyar and Thiruvanmiyur.
Officials in the
MRTS operations department said punctuality improved since the first week of
April, when they completed engineering work on the section. The Railways have replaced worn-out railway tracks with new
rails and installed concrete sleepers at points and crossings. They had to impose a speed limit of 15kmph and
occasional halts along these lines till the work was completed.
Now
read this news from New Indian Express, Chennai edition - 6 years after a three-and-a-half year old boy
fell into an uncovered sewage canal in a gap between the wall and floor at
Kotturpuram MRTS railway station, the Madras High Court has directed Southern
Railway to pay a compensation of Rs 7.1 lakh towards the boy’s medical
expenses.
S
Srinivasan’s son fell almost 20 feet into the sewage and he was rescued after
more than 5 minutes. During this time, the child’s entire body was full of
sewage reportedly affecting his face, nose, mouth and almost all parts of the
body. He was rushed to a private hospital nearby and treated there. Srinivasan
had to pay Rs 2.1 lakh for his son’s treatment.Srinivasan filed a writ petition
in February 2011 praying the court to direct the respondents to pay a
compensation of Rs 15 lakh.
“The
contention of the railways they are not at all responsible for negligence,
cannot be accepted,” a recent order by Justice S Vaidyanathan said. “Similarly, the contention of the petitioner
that the entire fault is on the part of the railways, cannot also be accepted.
There appears to be contributory negligence on the part of both parties. It is
the duty of parents to take care of the children, more particularly when
children are in the playful tender age”.
However,
the court said this was no ground to reject Srinivasan’s plea, especially as
there was a gap between the station building and the canal retaining wall. The
court directed the railways to pay a compensation of Rs five lakh and medical
expenses of Rs 2.1 lakh. However, as Southern Railway had paid Srinivasan Rs
one lakh by way of an interim order, it was ordered to pay the remaining
medical expenses of Rs 1.1 lakh, thus amounting to a total of Rs 6.1 lakh.As Srinivasan’s son was a minor
(aged three-and-a-half years at the time
of filing the petition), Southern Railway
was directed that Rs 3.5 lakh with interest at six per cent per annum be
deposited in the name of the boy in an interest-bearing fixed deposit scheme in
any one of the nationalised banks. The court ordered that the remaining amount
of Rs 2.6 lakh be paid with interest at six per cent per annum to Srinivasan.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
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