To make Railway Board member’s ride smooth, over 1,000 inconvenienced at Chennai's Egmore station

CHENNAI: More than 1,000 passengers travelling to Madurai from Chennai's Egmore station were forced to scramble, taking the stairs, lifts and escalators, to board the Pandian Express on Thursday night as it had been moved from the customary platform four to make way for a special train operated for a Railway Board member. The station's main entrance opens on to platform four, which allows passengers to board the Pandian Express, a hugely popular night train to Madurai, with minimum effort.
"This reminds me of the colonial-era practice of disturbing thousands of passengers for the sake of one officer.This is unacceptable," said Madurai MP Su Venkatesan, who was among those who had to scramble to reach the Pandian Express stationed on a platform that had to be accessed via an overbridge, which did have lifts and escalators. The MP said many people were forced to take the stairs given the rush.
I am shocked to know that the non-placement of Pandian Express at platform four was not warranted by operational constraints but to facilitate one person, who is a member of the infrastructure Railway Board, to board the special train bound for Rameswaram without any difficulty of climbing the escalator. His special train was to depart one hour after the Pandian Express. It was placed on platform four. But one thousand passengers were made to suffer by climbing the escalator and staircases. I am the witness to this ordeal, particularly for senior citizens and women, along with children," Madurai MP Su Venkatesan wrote to the Southern Railway general manager.
In response, Southern Railway said general manager R N Singh said he has given instructions to avoid a recurrence.
A Southern Railway statement said the placement of the inspection special on platform four and the Pandian Express on platform five was purely operational. "As per the rake link arrangement, the incoming Cholan Express returns as Pandian Express at 9.40pm. The rake is stabled on the same platform on which it arrives, and cleaning and maintenance are carried out for its departure as Pandian Express," it said.
The Southern Railway said the inspection special arrived from MGR Chennai Central at platform four at 8.57 pm. "Platform four became free only at 8.40pm after the departure of the Podigai Express. With one hour before departure and most passengers having already boarded the train, it is unsafe to shunt the train from platform five to four. There is a laid-down instruction to avoid changing platforms at short notice."
The statement also says that the Pandian Express has departed from platform five on several days.