Villagers protest cancellation of bus route

The State-run transport corporation operated two buses (route numbers 188A and 188B) from their village to Maduranthagam. Each bus would make two trips in a day. But even as the villagers were requesting for more buses, officials cancelled bus running on route no: 188B, about six months ago. They claimed it was stopped due to shortage of buses, and assured that the service would start again after getting new buses. But till date, it was not resumed. 

Meanwhile, few days ago, the officials announced the bus No A188 would function only in the morning – the evening service was cancelled. This seriously hit the office and college goers from the area.

In this background, around 7.30 am on Monday morning, the villagers blocked the bus and staged a protest. They demanded to start the service of both the buses soon, and also demanded more buses to their village. 

Annaikattu police and Maduranthagam depot manager rushed to the spot and promised to look into their demand. Following this, the villagers gave up the protest after an hour and dispersed.

Crack on track delays service 

Train service towards Chengalpattu was affected for more than an hour on Monday early morning following a crack on the rail track between Maraimalai Nagar and Singaperumal Koil railway station. 

Around 4.15 am on Monday, the railway gangman who was inspecting the tracks found the welding that joined the tracks was damaged. Soon, he alerted the Chengalpattu SMR and all the trains which were approaching towards Chengalpattu and Tambaram were stopped. 

Later, a team of gangmen from Tambaram and Chengalpattu rushed to the spot and undertook a temporary repair of the track. The locopilots driving trains along the route were asked to travel at a minimum speed on the particular stretch. Finally, the train service resumed at 5.30 in the morning. By then, due to the damage on the track, four express trains and two EMUs were delayed by nearly 2 hours. Railway officials said the damaged track would be repaired permanently by midnight.