Title - DMRC gears up to operate Airport Express line

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has constituted an operations and maintenance team of 100 officials for taking over operations of the Airport Metro Express in the wake of a recent letter by concessionaire, Delhi Airport Metro Express Private Limited (DAMEPL), communicating that it will not be able to run the services after business hours on June 30.DMRC Director (Works) Jitendra Tyagi, Director (Operations) Sharat Sharma, Director (Electrical) A.K. Gupta and General Manager (Operations) Vikas Kumar held a meeting with officials of the concessionaire on Saturday for the smooth transition of services. With the concessionaire having made its intentions to withdraw from the services clear, both the organisations have been working together to ensure continuation of the smooth functioning of the line.The DMRC said the operations and maintenance team has been created under DMRC Director (Operations) Sharat Sharma to handle operations on the 22.7-km-long line. DMRC Managing Director Mangu Singh has also formed a core committee of seven senior DMRC officials to handle emergency situations.The Corporation said officials 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

An Operations Control Manager (OCM) will also be appointed with a dedicated team to take over control of the all important Operations Control Centre (OCC) of the line, located at Dwarka Sector 21, from where the Airport link operations are monitored.

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.

DAMEPL had communicated on June 27 that it will not be able to run the services after the business hours of June 30. DMRC Board of Directors had then met on Friday to discuss the issue and concluded that the notice was in violation of the concessionaire agreement and the ongoing arbitration proceedings. The Board had decided to reject the notice and called upon the concessionaire to continue operations of the line in terms of the agreement. It, however, added that if the concessionaire did do not do so, the DMRC would be prepared to step in and operate the line in the larger public interest.