The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has started all the necessary arrangements required for taking over the operations of the Airport Express Link, if any such requirement arises, in the wake of a recent letter by the concessionaire communicating that they will not be able to run the services after the business hours tomorrow.
An operations and maintenance team of 100 officials has been created under DMRC's Director, Operations Sharat Sharma to handle the operations of the 22.7 km long line.
DMRC's Managing Director Mangu Singh has also formed a core committee of seven senior DMRC officials to handle extreme emergency situations.
Officers and staff will be deputed for all the strategic departments involved in the running of trains such as operations, traction, electrical and maintenance, civil, signalling and communications, security, rolling stock and finance. These officials, who are trained to operate and maintain all kinds of metro systems, have already visited the Airport line and taken stock of the situation there.
An Operations Control Manager (OCM) will also be appointed with a dedicated team to take over the control of the all important Operations Control Centre (OCC) of the line, from where the Express link operations are monitored. The OCC of the Airport Express link is located at Dwarka Sector 21.
The officials will be deputed as per a multi layered structure where there will be separate teams involved in carrying out routine train operations and handling emergencies and exigencies.
However, the staff currently employed by the concessionaire in station management and train operations will continue to carry on with their responsibilities under the supervision of the DMRC team.
DMRC's Director (Works) Jitendra Tyagi, Director (Operations) Sharat Sharma, Director (Electrical) AK Gupta and General Manager (Operations) Vikas Kumar today had a meeting with the officials of the concessionaire, Delhi Airport Metro Express Private Limited (DAMEPL) for the smooth transition of the services. Both the organizations are working together to ensure the continuation of the smooth functioning of the line.
DAMEPL had communicated earlier on Thursday that they will not be able to run the services after the business hours of Sunday.
DMRC's Board of Directors met on Friday to discuss the issue and concluded that the above notice was in violation of the Concessionaire Agreement and the ongoing Arbitration proceedings.
The Board of Directors also decided to reject the notice and called upon the concessionaire to continue the operations of the line in terms of the Agreement. If, however, they do not do so, DMRC will be prepared to step in and operate the line in larger public interest.
