BENGALURU: Four weeks after squalls brought down a portion of the false ceiling and the trusses supporting them at Sir M Visvesvaraya Terminal (SMVT) at Baiyappanahalli, no restoration measures have been undertaken, with Railway officials passing the buck regarding works or remedial steps taken to prevent a recurrence of another collapse.
TNIE visited SMVT Sunday and found gaping holes in the ceiling. Some parts of the truss and the broken parts of the ceiling are still at the spot and a stretch of it is barricaded. A railway source said MVV Satyanarayana, contracted for the construction of the station, had been asked to carry out restoration work. Asked when it would be ready, he said,
“The aluminium sheets for the false ceiling will arrive from Pune. We need 150 sqm of the sheet material. It would be cut into sheets, each measuring 3.5m in length and 184 cm in width.” Asked about preventive measures, the source said that strengthening work has been carried out on the roof portion after the mishap. Asked if the construction was poor, he ruled it out, saying, “There was gusty winds which impacted the structure,” he said.
South Western Railway Zone CPRO, Aneesh Hegde told TNIE, “To prevent a recurrence, additional suspenders have been added to support the false ceiling. The design in the corners of the false ceiling is being tweaked to prevent high wind from shearing it.” “The roof has been designed to withstand high wind speeds of up to 125 kmph. What had happened should not have happened.”
Bengaluru DRM, Shyam Singh said that an unprecedented high velocity gusty wind coupled with a storm damaged a portion of the false ceiling. “The damaged portion is being replaced and the restoration will be done soon,” he said, adding that the construction and the materials used were of poor quality.
A battle against spitting, smoking
Bengaluru: RPF personnel and Railway staff are waging a daily battle to ensure passengers do not spoil SMVT’s look because of their unhygienic behaviour. A police personnel told TNIE, “We book passengers under the Tobacco Act Section (4) and (6). The fines we impose are as follows - Rs 300 for spitting or smoking, Rs 200 for littering and Rs 500 for urinating.
We have collected Rs 11,200 as fine up to June 20 and have booked 44 cases.” In May, Rs 20,800 was collected as penalty and 84 cases were filed while Rs 18,300 was the fine amount and 90 cases were filed in April. A senior railway official said the ticket checking staff booked cases separately under the Railways Act 1989 under Section 167. “We have anywhere between 11 and 14 trains arriving and departing daily at SMVT station. The station is a no-smoking zone and many do not know that,” he said.