17 trapped in lift at Chennai's Puzhuthivakkam MRTS station; rescued after 2 hours

CHENNAI: A total of 17 passengers, including four children, were trapped inside a lift at Puzhuthivakkam MRTS station for two hours on Sunday night, barely 15 days after inauguration of the Velachery-St Thomas Mount MRTS stretch. Some passengers said there were no Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel present at the station.

The incident occurred around 9.30pm when passengers entered the lift to reach the ground floor. The lift developed a technical snag and got stuck between the first and second floors.

Passengers said panic set in as the emergency contact numbers displayed inside the lift failed to connect. Those trapped used their phones to contact friends and family, who alerted fire and rescue services and the police.

A team from Velachery fire station and Adambakkam police rushed to the spot. After nearly two hours, rescue personnel managed to open the top panel of the lift. The children were brought out first, followed by the remaining passengers.

All 17 passengers were safely evacuated by around 12.02am on Monday. No injuries were reported. Relatives and local residents gathered at the station, expressing anger over what they described as negligence by railway authorities. Tensions escalated when railway staff allegedly questioned why passengers had used the lift instead of stairs or escalators.

K Bhaskar, a former Divisional Railway Users' Consultative Committee (DRUCC) member, said, "It is an embarrassment for railways. In many stations, either lifts are down for maintenance or no lifts are installed. In a new station such as Puzhuthivakkam, lifts should have been in proper condition. The railways should take action against the maintenance department and fine the company from where the lift is procured."

Railway officials, however, said the lift malfunctioned due to overcrowding. They said technical checks confirmed the system failed because more people than permitted capacity were inside the lift.