Chennithala regrets chaos caused by Chandy’s travel on Kochi Metro

Kochi: Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala on Thursday expressed regrets for causing chaos to the commuters during the travel of former Chief Minister Ommen Chandy on Kochi Metro with party workers.

“It was the party workers’ sentiment that was seen in the ‘yatra’. The workers had not damaged anything. But the huge number of workers might have caused difficulty to the commuters. I regret that,” Chennithala said.

Chaos prevailed at two Kochi metro stations on Tuesday evening as hundreds of Congress workers virtually took over the premises to enable Oommen Chandy to travel on the metro that opened for the public on Monday.

The Congress activists flocked to the stations to lodge their protest against the lack of invitation to Chandy on Saturday when Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Kerala's first metro.

In the process, commuters at the Aluva station where Chandy boarded the train and at the Palarivatom station where he alighted were put into great trouble.

Each train can accommodate up to 970 passengers. A train departs Aluva station every nine minutes to Palarivatom, located 13 km away. The commuting time is 20 minutes.

Such was the rush at Aluva that Chandy himself could board only the second train after entering the metro station. Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala managed to get into the first train.

The Congress protest turned out to be a nightmare for ordinary people.

At Palarivatom station, the crowd which came to receive Chandy was so massive that Congress legislators found it difficult to bring him out to his jeep.