The Delhi
Bharatiya Janata Party President Shri Vijay Goel today expressed deep concern
over the mishandling of Delhi Metro operation with an increasing number of
snags, cracking of pillars and growing safety concerns. The commuters often
feel harassed with metro trains halting quite often recently. It seems another
major initiative taken by the BJP-led NDA government when it started Delhi
Metro will lose its purpose if remedial steps are not taken immediately.
Addressing a press conference today Shri Goel said,
"The Delhi government has a 50% stake in the DMRC. However there seems to
be no action on part of the Delhi
government to take corrective measures. The BJP demands a white paper on the
present status of the metro with an action plan explaining the road map to
resolve issues which may ground metro in the long run."
"The BJP also demands to know what action has
been taken to stop frequent halts of metro trains. Whose accountability has
been fixed for cracks in pillars and frequent technical faults," he asked.
It may be recalled that the physical construction
work on the Delhi Metro started on October 1, 1998 during NDA regime and thee first line of the Delhi Metro was
inaugurated by Atal Behari Vajpayee, the then Prime Minister of India on
December 24, 2002.
The DMRC was in fact set up in 1995 at the
initiative of the then BJP government in Delhi.
Today metro has become the lifeline of Delhi
but with the expansion in its operation, the quality of metro services is a
grave cause of concern.
Shri Goel said that cracks and faults in Delhi
Metro pillars and other structures have been frequently reported.
The DMRC had earlier also rejected previous reports
on major faults and cracks on the high-speed Airport Metro Express line in July
2012 and the sagging of Noida City Centre platform.
The cracks on pillars at Noida City Centre were not
considered as serious initially. It was only on September 28, following media
reports, that the DMRC admitted that there was deflection in one of the cantilever
arms of the station that led to the sagging of its platforms.
The trouble-ridden high-speed airport service had
to be stopped for six months from July 8, 2012 after the DMRC itself detected
major faults on the line. It had initially categorized the problems as
"minor", according to an inquiry committee formed by Ministry of
Urban Development (MoUD), holding DMRC responsible in its recent report.
Several cracks have appeared on some pillars of the
Delhi Metro’s busiest line that carries 800,000 commuters a day between Dwarka
and Noida, with experts calling for immediate repairs to avert a disaster.
Adding to the woes the DMRC is facing notice from a
consortium of lenders with the Private promoter, Reliance Infrastructure moving
out of Delhi Airport Metro Express Link project.
The lenders’ consortium, headed by Axis Bank, has
sent recovery notices to both Reliance Infrastructure (promoter of the original
concessionaire) and Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (which is now operating the
Airport Metro link).
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Shri Goel said that an audit conducted by the Delhi government's
transport department, found that the security at the stations needs to be
strengthened further.
Commuters enter the Metro stations with their
luggage and can easily ply to the ticket counters without their baggage getting
checked. The luggage is scanned only before the commuter goes towards the
automatic fare collection gates. Threats loom large over the access points to
the Metro stations and the unpaid area of the stations as there are no
provisions to secure these areas.
Some recent incidents
October 25, 2013: Hundreds of commuters, including
women and elderly, were stuck in a Dwarka-bound Metro train at the Yamuna Bank
station for almost an hour following a major technical snag. The evening rush
hour and a packed train added to their woes; women and children panicked and
some elderly people fell sick because the air-conditioning had stopped working.
October 18, 2013: Thousands of commuters had a
harrowing time as the DMRC shut the Noida City Centre metro station for eight
hours for repair work. This was the second round of repair work being carried
out on the pillar; the first was undertaken from October 12 to October 14.
September, 2013: the Noida City Centre metro
station had to be shut down twice due to faults identified in its structure.
On 11 June, 2013:
An eight-compartment train carrying 1,791 passengers was stranded in mid
section between Central Secretariat and Udyog Bhavan Metro station, as the
emergency brake could not be released after being applied. Thousands of
travellers, including women and children had a harrowing time after being stuck
inside the train for over an hour.
Zamrudpur Accident: In 2009, eight people died
during the construction of the Badarpur line.
Cracks and faults in Delhi Metro pillars and other
structures have been frequently reported.
The DMRC had earlier also rejected previous reports
on major faults and cracks on the high-speed Airport Metro Express line in July
2012 and the sagging of Noida City Centre platform.
The cracks on pillars at Noida City Centre were not
considered as serious initially. It was only on September 28, following media
reports, that the DMRC admitted that there was deflection in one of the
cantilever arms of the station that led to the sagging of its platforms.
The trouble-ridden high-speed airport service had
to be stopped for six months from July 8, 2012 after the DMRC itself detected
major faults on the line. It had initially categorized the problems as
"minor", according to an inquiry committee formed by Ministry of
Urban Development (MoUD), holding DMRC responsible in its recent report.
Several cracks have appeared on some pillars of the
Delhi Metro’s busiest line that carries 800,000 commuters a day between Dwarka
and Noida, with experts calling for immediate repairs to avert a disaster.
Faced with loan exposure to the Delhi Airport Metro
Express Link project turning into a non-performing asset, a consortium of
lenders has initiated steps for recovery of the dues.
