Workers clean a Delhi Metro tunnel, in New Delhi.The Delhi Metro erected the last pre-cast segment or rings of the underground stretch of phase II early this month. The metro is the pride of the city of 14 million, where commuters were long forced to rely on rickshaws, motorcycles or smoke-belching buses.
Kolkata/New Delhi: This can be an eye-opener: Around 100,000 passengers are reported to be using the Kolkata Metro daily without tickets, as the ticket-checking infrastructure is in a shambles. The ticket vending machines just can't keep pace with the increase in passengers after Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee opened a 5.8-km-long stretch of the Metro, part of the 8.6-km southern extension project that was sanctioned during her previous tenure at the helm of the railway ministry in 1999-2000.
That's just part of the problem. After over two decades, the Metro authorities have just recently ordered new rolling stock. This means, 17 of the 18 rakes that were procured in 1984 are still servicing the Metro. There are no spare rakes in case of a breakdown or an emergency and the situation will be worse when the passenger load goes up further next year when the balance of the expansion project is completed.
The new rakes that have been ordered will take a long time to come. Says an Integral Coach Factory (ICF) executive: "We have received an order for rakes from the Kolkata Metro. Two prototypes of these rakes should be ready by February or March next year, but this is dependent on receiving certain materials from Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) on time. Once the prototypes are ready, there will be test runs, and if we get approvals on all technical parameters, only then commercial production can begin."
