Snags dent Metro image

Delhi Metro’s reputation as the most efficient mode of public transport is at stake. In the last six months Metro has suffered disruption seven times due to technical snags.

A senior officer of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) said: “Technical snag is a common phenomenon in such a huge network.”

“In foreign countries system opens for commuters after several tests and trials such as passenger capacity and pressure capacity of tracks. But here we never had such a luxury. In some cases we had to start trial runs for the trains seven to 10 days after the tracks were laid,” the senior officer added.

Glitches mostly take place on 44 km line 2 (Huda City Centre-Jahangirpuri), 48 km line 3 (Noida City Centre-Dwarka) and partially opened 20-km long line 6 (Central Secretariat-Badarpur), which is currently operational up to Sarita Vihar.

Another problem troubling Delhi Metro is its lack of technical expertise to deal with such problems.

“Every time after such glitch we call technical experts from foreign countries like Switzerland, Korea, Japan, France, Germany,” Anuj Dayal, spokesperson of DMRC said.

On Friday, DMRC top boss E Sreedharan appointed a high level committee to probe into such glitches.

Delhi Metro is now expecting some relief by next year when many new coaches and trains will be started.

Mostly the problems are with the signaling system, the power supply and the trains and tracks.

“Frequent use of passengers’ emergency alarm and problem related to door closing contribute to the snags. Once new trains and coaches are added to the fleet situation would possibly be better,” said Dayal.

The DMRC took up the matter with coach maker Bombardier after quite a few of its trains developed snags.

However, Bombardier officials said: “These snags have nothing to do with the trains. We maintain international standards while manufacturing the trains.”