Chennai: The escalators at five foot over bridges across the city, which were opened for the convenience of pedestrian, have not been operating for the last three days after the operators and maintenance workers quit their posts protesting nonpayment of salaries for the last five months. The escalators at Tambaram Sanatorium, Chromepet, Anna Nagar, Velachery and Perungudi have been shut for three days.
These were set up at a cost of Rs 27.50 crore in May 2014 to prevent mishaps involving pedestrians on the road and to ensure free flow of traffic. The escalators are under the charge of Mumbai based contractors Vijay Nirman private limited. Rajan (name changed on request), a maintenance worker, said the operators have not been paid that for the past five months. “They went back to their villages as they were not paid. Previously they were not paid two months’ salary but somehow they managed. But five months is too much and so they boycotted work. They would get around Rs 8,000 to Rs 9,000 per month,” he said.
The protesting workers had put up a notice explaining the situation. The notice read that for “around four months the workers had not been paid and hence they were not reporting to work.”
