For the first time, Chennai Metro Rail has begun roping in local workers from Tamil Nadu and deploying them for the upcoming ₹63,246 crore phase II project. Workers from Madurai, Dharmapuri and Arakkonam are also going to play a part in shaping the Chennai Metro Rail network, along with their colleagues from the north.

For carrying out construction in three corridors—Madhavaram to SIPCOT (corridor 3), Light House to Poonamallee (corridor 4) and Madhavaram to Sholinganallur (corridor 5)—across the 118.9 km phase II network, Chennai Metro Rail needs nearly 25,000 workers now. But gripped with nearly 30 percent shortage of workers, they recently decided to get the workers from the State as well.

One of the worst affected stretches is part of corridor 4—Porur to Kodambakkam—and corridor 5 where there exists 35 percent and 40 percent shortfall of workers respectively.

According to officials of Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL), workers from the northern states are always engaged in construction of their project. But due to paucity of migrant workers, they have now got workers from the neighbouring districts.

“They reached the city two weeks back; these are semi-skilled workers and we have been training them to take them on for track laying work along corridor 4. This is critical work and we couldn’t afford to get delayed further. We are finding it particularly difficult to get semi-skilled workers,” an official said.

But for the construction of viaduct, entry/exit structures, there is not adequate manpower, officials said. Corridor 4 is given importance now and they are rearranging the workforce to first finish the construction in this corridor.

When asked if nonpayment of wages or lack of good facilities are forcing workers to resort to working in other projects or cities, officials said they are monitoring their settlement of wages. “We checked the accommodation as well. But it is quite natural that they would prefer to work elsewhere if the payment is a tad bit higher. We are learning the importance of the workers more and more, off late,” he added.

It is to be noted that a recent report by The State Planning Commission of Government of Tamil Nadu noted that migrant workers endure long working hours. A total of 62% of workers in the construction sector labour on site for nearly 10 hours a day on an average.