KOLKATA: Platform screen doors (PSDs) shouldn’t be installed in the city’s Metro lines, chief commissioner of railway safety (CCRS) Shailesh Kumar Pathak has observed while giving his approval for the Dakshineswar stretch.
Any new Metro in India requires the nod from the commissioner of railway safety (CRS). The statements regarding PSDs is mentioned at the start of the observations made by the CCRS in the “sanction of introduction of commercial services” for the 4km extension of the north-south Metro. It has come at a time when PSDs are seen as the best solution to prevent suicides on Metro tracks.
Kolkata’s Line 2, the East-West Metro, has PSDs. And RVNL, which is implementing most of the city’s other Metro projects, including the Dakshineswar line, has kept the provisions for platform screen doors in most of the corridors. The provision is not there for the Dakshineswar stretch, though, since it’s an extension of the north-south line, which is the country’s oldest Metro.
The CCRS has observed: “It is learnt that PSD is being planned for Metro Railway. Provision of PSD increases the cost of signalling substantially apart from increasing maintenance requirement. In Metro networks, non-adherence to timetable is the cause of maximum inconvenience to passenger…so such cost-prohibitive equipment need not be deployed in Indian Metro systems and requirement of PSD should be critically reviewed on the basis of over life cycle cost, operations and maintenance issues and operational requirement of Metro.”
Pathak has also pointed out that even in Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, which runs on advanced signalling technology, platform screen doors have not been planned or provided in major portions of the network, except for lines seven and eight. Asked if the critical statements has made the use of the new technology uncertain in the new Metro corridors in Kolkata, a senior RVNL official rued, “I would guess so. After all, the observations have come from the highest railway safety official.”