RailEnquiry

The Chennai Central railway station is a piece of art but is not as secure as authorities claim. Just a day after a 'mentally unstable' man climbed up the spire of its iconic clock tower, a TOI team on Tuesday found there is not a single guard to stop intruders.Entering the 19th century in Gothic Revival style, this correspondent and a photographer climbed to the first floor but then seemed to have reached a dead end. Later, some clerical staff led them to an obscure opening.It was only 4.30pm but the area was completely dark. The flashlight on the correspondent's mobile phone revealed a set of spiral stairs, each just about a foot wide. After a climb of about 15 steps, a spectacular view of the city unfolded. From the entry to the base of the clock tower, not one official had stopped the team.There the fun ended. After Monday's fiasco authorities had put a shiny new lock at the entrance. However, the door looked like it would give way under the slightest pressure. On Monday, a 25-year-old man climbed the clock tower around 2.30pm and remained there until fire and rescue services officials finally got him down at 6.50pm.On Tuesday, railway officials said they had taken measures to prevent another incident of the kind. "We told the station master to block all entries to the tower," divisional security commissioner S R Gandhi said.

However, traffic police at the entrance of the station were clearly not amused. "Even a day after the incident they can't block the entries," said one officer. As part of the preventive measures, RPF personnel have rounded up a few old and mentally unstable people from a few stations in the city. "We rounded up 20 people from Chennai Central and other suburban railway stations," said a Southern Railway press release.

Security officials said these people were not dangerous. "The man from Nepal who climbed up the clock tower yesterday did not have harmful intentions to do so. But it is important to block these entries," said Gandhi.