All over the world there are accepted norms for maintenance of regular trains and the Metro Rail. The Indian Railways has a one to two hour window for maintenance. And in Mumbai , where the track length is greater due to the Suburban Rail and there is high density of passengers, maintenance is managed within four to five hours. They may reduce frequency but never the end to end time. This is unheard of even with the Delhi Metro. No public service, including the BMTC, is curtailed for a government holiday.
If the issue is of rake maintenance, then you need to buy more rakes. This decision is a result of poor planning. They did not order enough coaches for the estimated five lakh ridership. Normally, all metros have standby coaches for emergencies. But the BMRCL is using the standby coaches for increasing the Metro's frequency presently. Otherwise, how could it have increased the frequency given that it has only three coaches? One train cannot run from 5am to 11pm. So it is probably operating the standby coaches in the second shift.
Although cleaning and mandatory checks are necessary, it has not properly allotted time for maintenance. The decision to delay the service to 8 am from 5 am only shows a lack of planning. What it is doing now is compromising on passenger facility by reducing the period of service. Sundays , Saturdays and government holidays will also see a train frequency of once in 15 minutes for the same reason. The problem stems from the fact that it did not order six metros coaches when it should have. There are plenty of long distance train users who need to board the metro at 6 am or 7 am. It is for this reason that service is never stopped by any transport body. As for track maintenance, the BMRCL needs to procure advanced automated equipment to speed up the process. Or it has to increase the number of machines used. If one machine does track maintenance for 5 kms, the same job can be done faster with two machines doing half the distance each. BMRCL needs to work on augmenting its infrastructure, machines and manpower. It can do it. There are no constraints. This is how things are done in our country and even abroad.
– Sanjeev Dyamnavar, Transport Expert, Praaja RAAG Advocacy Group
