Sunday's incident involving an 'inexperienced' operator stopping a metro train between Rajajinagar and Kuvempu Road stations and getting himself locked outside while commuters were inside has raised many questions.
While the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) officials claimed that the driver halted the train as a precautionary measure after sensing a technical fault, BMRCL Employees' Union vice-president Suryanarayana Murthy claimed that it was because the loco pilot was not trained to run the train.
According Mr. Murthy, the BMRCL has deployed close to 50 train operators as part of the emergency response team (ERT). These operators don't undergo enough training and don't have to clear an exam unlike the regular operators. "They are inexperienced and unqualified. There have been more incidents involving these untrained operators, which the BMRCL has covered up as a technical glitch," he said.
Meanwhile, BMRCL official said technical glitches are unavoidable. "The train has numerous electronic components, such as transistors and integrated circuits, and these devices can fail. We have a 900-plus strong team maintaining and checking the trains. One or two incidents are unavoidable," an official said.
