Girder fault near Trinity station disrupts metro services in Bengaluru

BENGALURU: BMRCL engineers have temporarily fixed faults in metro structures that developed due to what is technically called honeycomb formation near Trinity station.
Metro services between Indiranagar and MG Road were suspended for about three hours on Wednesday morning after a concrete girder slightly came off the beam near Trinity station. The metro station at Majestic witnessed unprecedented rush by the time metro engineers fixed the problem and restored normal services in the morning peak hour.

“The girder came off a bit and the track level sunk a little. We suspended services on one track till the problem was rectified. A temporary steel structure was erected to support the girder. We will have to permanently fix it,” a senior BMRCL official told ET.

The honeycomb formation, the official statement said, came to light during routine inspection. “The affected portion is small and will not affect overall safety of the structure. Tests are being conducted as a precaution,” the official said. Trains on the stretch will continue to run at a lower speed for a few days, it is learnt.

Due to the problem, the Metro cancelled about 11 train services between 5am and 11am. “We ran 68 trains between Baiyappanahalli and Majestic including several short-loop services to clear the rush,” a BMRCL official said.

The BMRCL is studying what caused the faults and has requested experts at Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and Delhi Metro to help them.

Surya Narayana Murthy, vicepresident of Bengaluru Metro Rail Employees Union, has urged Namma Metro officials to penalise the contractor who built the structure. “The infrastructure is supposed to have a lifespan of at least 50 years. But the girder has come off in less than seven years. It shows poor quality of work. Action should also be taken against the officer who cleared the project work,” he said.

Also, some of the passengers were not happy with the way BMRCL handled the situation. “Crowd is too much. Why don’t you inform well in advance?” Shashank Parashar tweeted with a picture of a crowded Metro station.