Kolkata: Railway safety chief inspects East-West Metro, but no fire nod yet

KOLKATA: The commissioner of railway safety (CRS) carried out inspection of the East-West Metro on Tuesday even as uncertainty continued to prevail over fire safety nod for two of the six stations on the first 5km Sector V-Salt Lake Stadium stretch. CRS, an autonomous body under the ministry of civil aviation, has to give the final go-ahead before the new Metro link can start commercial runs, but it would demand fire clearances for all the six stations before granting the green signal.
Shailesh Kumar Pathak, chief commissioner of railway safety (CCRS), and his team of four deputy commissioners of railway safety (dy CRS), visited Sector V, Karunamoyee and Central Park stations, leaving out City Centre, Bengal Chemical and Salt Lake Stadium stations. The CRS team, which rode a train to check its maximum speed of 90 kmph, was also shown the evacuation system, alertness of the staff in emergency situations and the fire prevention system. They checked details, like whether a braking rake could maintain the 30m separation gap with another train in front, the automatic ticket vending machines and synchronisation of platform screen doors.
Ahead of the much-awaited inspection, implementing agency Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC) officials had on Monday met fire department officers, urging them all over again that the CRS would ask for the fire safety clearances for all the six stations, but the impasse was not resolved.
The hurdle over fire certificate might cut short the already truncated 5km East-West Metro operations to 3.5km, with the ride from Sector V ending at City Centre, as the two stations ahead—Bengal Chemical and Salt Lake Stadium—don’t have the mandatory fire department no-objection certificates (NOC)s. Asked about the NOCs, DG (fire and emergency services) Jag Mohan told TOI on Tuesday, “I can’t say anything. We will take a decision, according to the law. Many issues need to be resolved first. We take decisions if there is non-compliance. There have been so many fire incidents, we must be doubly careful.”
TOI has been reporting on the East-West Metro’s last-minute roadblock for the past two months. After an inspection on June 14, the fire department refused to issue NOCs for the Bengal Chemical and Salt Lake Stadium stations, citing the absence of their third exits shown in the original plan. Later, fire officers found that shanties and a Trinamool party office at Duttabad occupied the stretch where the third exits for the stations were supposed to be built. The Duttabad slum runs along the east of EM Bypass; encroachers from shanties there had blocked 365m of the East-West Metro’s viaduct construction on Bypass for five years. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee and Union minister Babul Supriyo had to intervene to end the stand-off and work restarted in April, 2009. Apparently wary of facing resistance all over again, KMRC reportedly did away with the staircases and revised the plan.
At a meeting on July 6, fire minister Sujit Bose agreed to giving a one-year temporary clearance and asked KMRC to rehabilitate the slumdwellers and build the fire exits in the period.