Four shops develop cracks due to Metro Rail work

The shopkeepers who were tenants in the buildings, alleged that the walls of the buildings developed cracks at around 6 pm on Saturday when an earthmover was used to dig a pit for laying foundation for the Metro station. A puncture shop, a juice and chat shop and a stickering shop were damaged.

S Manikandan, who runs a festival items rental shop at the building and also in-charge of the property said that he had given a written complaint to the Chennai Metro rail on November 19 after a hotel rented on the property developed a crack. “Despite receiving an acknowledgement for the complaint, no action was taken on it. The Metro continued the work without taking a precaution to prevent damage to our structures. On December 7, an earth mover was used to dig a huge pit for constructing foundation for the Tondiarpet Metro station,” he said.

Manikandan noted that so far, no senior officials from the Metro rail inspected the damages. “The three shops have to be vacated due to the damages to the building. Now the shopkeepers have lost their livelihood while the owner lost the rental ofRs 4,000 per month for each shop. Only the contractor have given assurance to reconstruct the damaged portion of the building even they did not give it on writing,” he said.

Ajijul Mallick who runs a hotel in the premises said that his business was already got severely hit because of the ongoing Metro rail work. “With the damages to the building, not many people are visiting the hotel,” he said.

Officials of Chennai Metro Rail Limited said that if any damages happen to the buildings because of the ongoing metro rail work, it would be repaired by them.