On Friday, some media reports said that hours after a structural issue on a Metro pillar near South End Circle station in Bengaluru was fixed, another pillar with a similar issue was found. On Thursday night, officials from the Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) were fixing a flaw found in the bearing pedestal at pillar number 67 near the South End Circle Metro station when they noticed a problem with pillar number 66 as well.
However, the BMRL clarified that these are not cracks and that the flaw was due to the way the pillar was constructed in two layers.
“BMRCL hereby clarifies that it is not a crack in the pillar. The bearing pedestal was constructed in two layers. On one of the faces of the bearing pedestal, the construction joint is visible. It is not a crack in the pedestal also,” read BMRCL’s official statement, clarifying the media coverage regarding the safety of metro structures and travelling passengers in Namma Metro.
Furthermore, it added that this was part of its ‘regular maintenance’ procedure. “Routine inspections by a team of competent engineers as per schedule are carried at each pillar location in the prescribed manner, and maintenance action is taken in a systematic manner. During such routine inspection by BMRCL engineers, this joint surface crack visibility in bearing pedestals was noticed at pillar no 66 and 67. Action was taken and attended to the bearing pedestals at pillar no 67 on Thursday night,” it said, adding that the bearing pedestal at Pillar no 66 was attended to on Friday night.
Earlier in December, a honeycomb formation was found in a pillar near the Trinity metro station. This has caused some delays in the purple line as officials set about fixing the issue. Trains, which were running 15 minutes late, cautioned when crossing the pillar in question near the Trinity Metro Station. Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy had initially asked for the services to be stopped altogether while the issue was being resolved but later retracted the statement once the problem was identified.
At the time, a BMRCL official stated that the slider, or concrete slabs, supported by a pillar had moved from its original position and that the engineers were working on concretising and strengthening the slider. In order to support the slider temporarily while the work was going on, a metal jack had been placed next to the pillar. Workers were given three days to fix the issue.