The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on Wednesday suspended four officials, including the ones in-charge of the Kalindi Kunj metro depot, where a trial train rolled back and crashed into a wall while being taken for maintenance on Tuesday.
Inquiry report
The managing director of DMRC, Mangu Singh, approved the orders of suspension based on an inquiry conducted by a team of three executive director-rank officials, DMRC chief spokesperson Anuj Dayal said.
The suspended officials include a deputy general manager who was the depot in-charge, an assistant manager, a junior engineer and an assistant section engineer, Mr. Dayal said.
“The inquiry report revealed that this incident was solely attributable to human failure as proper procedures were not followed,” Mr. Dayal said.
The brakes of one of the trains — which will run on the Botanical Garden-Kalkaji Mandir section to be launched on December 25 by the Prime Minister — was not re-commissioned before moving the train on the washing ramp, the DMRC said.
DMRC norms
As per the norms laid down by the DMRC, when a train enters a workshop, the brakes of the train are decommissioned so that the train and its systems including the brakes can be freely checked. However, this needs to be re-commissioned after the check, but was not done.
“As a result, as soon as the operator brought the train to the ramp, it started rolling back, derailed and hit the wall,” Mr. Dayal said. He also stressed that the train, which can be enabled to run unattended or ‘driverless’, was not actually without a driver when the incident happened as a person was on board.
Trains on the new 12.38-km-long section, part of metro’s upcoming Magenta Line, will initially operate with a driver with a high level of automation including platform screen doors, he said. The DMRC also stressed that Tuesday’s incident was a localised incident within the maintenance shed of the depot. Such an accident, they said, cannot happen in a passenger train.
