BENGALURU: Almost every employee in the Project Division of the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) was roped in on Sunday to carry out a recce to handle any emergency if the proposed indefinite strike by its employees affiliated to the Union materialises. The management has already requested the Home Secretary, the Director General of Police and the Police Commissioner to ensure adequate security for its passengers and property. The BMTC is also readying additional buses to ensure smooth travel from Monday for the public in the event of any disruption in Metro services.
Declaring the duration from 5 am of Monday to 6 am on Tuesday as an Emergency Period,BMRCL has already trained over 200 of its Project staff at the Principal Training Institute on May 30. They have been assigned the roles of Metro Commandant, Car Officer, Station in-charge,Revenue Managers and Reach Officers. To manage any crisis,the staff have been been split into two 12-hour duty shifts of 6 am to 6 pm on Monday and 6 pm to 6 am of Tuesday.
“It is only a major chunk of the 900-plus staff of the Operations and Maintenance wing who are permanent employees and affiliated to the Union who will be part of the strike if it happens,” said a top official. Section Engineers, Junior Engineers and Assistant Engineers of the Projects team have been trained to handle back up operations and Control room work related to train operations. An Emergency back up team of nearly 90 train operators trained over a year ago will steer trains if required.
Two Car officers, one each at the end coaches of the trains will assist Train Operators and the public in each train. “The Metro Commandant will be positioned at four strategic loactions to oversee the normal working of trains and ensure Car officers are on board,” read a BMRCL document readied on the preparations.
BMRCL Managing Director Mahendra Jain told Express, “We will ensure fairly good operations of trains and have enough staff on hand for it. The frequency might be reduced but are doing our best to ensure our commuters are not affected much.”
V Ponnuraj, Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation Managing Director said, “We will be running all our buses, including spare ones at our disposal to handle the excess crowd. We will reroute buses as per requirement from low payload routes.”
The original call for the strike was on March 22. It was then postponed to April 28 and is now set for June 4. Recognition of the Union, payment on par with other Metro Rail Corporations, quick promotions and allowances are among the demands.