Bengaluru: Sunday ride for commuters turned ugly with Bangalore metro train’s brakes jammed at RV Station. The technical snag forced officials to stop the train from operating temporarily on one section of Metro’s Green Line.
Over 500 metro commuters were asked to de-board the train till the issue was fixed. This caused a delay of 20 minutes and the spill over effect was seen on other two train schedule. The trains headed towards Kempe Gowda Metro station was delayed.
A senior metro official informed that the incident took place at 11.36. The brakes jammed just when the train was about to depart from RV Road Station. It was heading towards Jayanagar Metro Station.
A passenger on board narrating the experience shared that the train had to be steered in reverse direction by use of a rear engine to Yelachenahalli. The train was back after the problem was resolved.
Passengers were asked to alight from the train few seconds before the train’s departure. Public system was not use to inform the commuters. It was a metro staff present at the location who informed riders about train’s mechanical failure.
In absence of no information, passengers were agitated as they were clueless on when the journey would resume. They had waited for nearly 20 minutes before the empty resumed journey after the issue was fixed.
The entire incident caused high level of discomfort for passengers as there were others who were waiting for their next train. There was mad rush and total chaos. Executive director of Operations and Maintenance, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL), A S Shankar, had confirmed of the technical snag at RV Road Station.
The Loco pilot has understood that brakes could not be released, shared Shankar.
He said that the Loco pilot realised that the brakes could not as the train was not moving despite of applied pressure. As the train’s operations are automated it cannot be rectified by Loco pilot. Officials decided to halt the train to nearest station Puttenahall by employing other engine. The metro was programmed to travel up to Nagasandra.
Subsequent to reaching Puttenahalli, the brakes were released manually and the train was brought back to RV Road station, he explained.
Shankar assured a detailed analysis of the brakes jamming issue post operation. BMRCL ‘s Chief Public Relation officer U A Vasanth Rao informed that one Bangalore Metro train was delayed by 10 minutes at Banashankari Metro station. At the same time an additional metro train was delayed by 6.5 minutes at JP Nagar Metro station.
