CRS wants gaps fixed before his nod

Commissioner for Railway Safety (CRS) Deepak Kumar Singh has given a list of shortcomings which he wants the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) to sort out before he could send his recommendations and the report of his inspection of Reach-1 (Byappanahalli-MG Road) of Namma Metro project.

Speaking to Deccan Herald from Secunderabad, Singh said: “I have, through a letter, communicated numerous shortcomings that I saw during my inspection and am waiting for the BMRCL to submit a ‘compliance report’ before I could take the matter forward.”

This has dampened the chances of the BMRCL meeting Chief Minister Sadananda Gowda’s deadline for obtaining the required certification. Gowda had earlier said that all the clearances to begin the commercial operations of the project will be obtained by September 15.

Singh, without elaborating on what kind of shortcomings the BMRCL is required to sort out, said he can only make his recommendations and file the report after the Corporation sorts everything out.

BMRCL spokesperson B L Y Chavan, however, maintained: “There are no shortcomings in terms of design or any technical aspect. We have only been advised to ‘improve’ aspects on working procedures and submit some additional documents. There is nothing that cannot be worked out.”

While compliance with the working procedures might be completely in the hands of the Corporation, the additional documents that the CRS has sought has to be obtained from the Railway Board.

The documents that Singh has sought is the sanction letter for opening of the lines of the project, an application for which is already pending with the Railway Board.

It is noteworthy that the Railway Board had asked for additional information from the BMRCL before it could grant the sanction. The additional information it had sought pertained to deviation in schedule of dimensions (SOD), the same problem that had prevented the Corporation from obtaining certification in April.

Notwithstanding the pressure from the Centre and the State, which saw the CRS study the documents even before he could inspect the project and conduct the inspection before the BMRCL had the sanction for the opening of the lines, the process of certification has now finally hit a procedural bottleneck.