DNA:
Mumbai: Saturday, 23 August 2014.
Reliance Infrastructure (RInfra) led Mumbai Metro
One Private Limited (MMOPL) that operates the Mumbai metro between Versova and
Ghatkopar has couched its operation in such secrecy that it is unwilling to
share documents or basic details with not just the public but even its
government partner, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority
(MMRDA).
RInfra being a private organisation does not come
under the Right to Information Act, and this company has majority stakes in the
MMOPL and is also the Metro Rail Administrator as per the provisions of the
Metro Railway (Operations and Maintenance) Act, 2002. The MMRDA owns 26% of the project and the government has three directors on the eight member
board, the rest being from Reliance Infra.
The current mechanism is such that any information
that is needed is to be routed through the Mumbai Metropolitan Region
Development Authority (MMRDA), who in turn approaches MMOPL to respond.
Three Right to Information applications filed with
the MMRDA to get public documents, namely, reports by Research Design and
Standards Organisation (RDSO), safety report by Commissioner of Metro Railway
Safety (CMRS) and rolling stock approval from the Railway Board have not been
responded to. The MMRDA alerted MMOPL but for over a month now it did not share
these basic reports.
This is not the first instance of MMOPL
functioning in a non-transparent manner. In the past, it has kept MMRDA
officials in the dark from the incidents of commuters falling on the tracks,
which dna reported on August 12.
On the inaugural day of Mumbai Metro, that is on
June 8, there was technical failure at Ghatkopar Metro station resulting in
services getting affected, but MMOPL maintained that there wasn't any technical
error in their systems.
Later too, there was an instance of signal failure
near Jagruti Nagar Metro station on account of heavy rains on July 31, but once again MMOPL came out in public stating that they are purposely
running the services late.
RTI experts are of the opinion that the Mumbai
Metro is providing public service as a Mass Rapid Transit System, and the CEO
is the Metro Rail Administrator, who is a public servant. Thus, MMOPL that
operates and maintains the system should come under the RTI Act.
The same voices are even echoed by MMRDA and state
authorities who say that metro rail is not on a private plot where entry is
prohibited, but the entire project is on a public road and hence the company
running the public transport service is accountable to the public.
Reliance officials in the past while speaking to
dna have maintained that the firm's position is that the current mechanism
wherein Mumbaikars could direct their RTI pleas to the MMRDA for information
pertaining to the VAG corridor will work just fine.
Such a mechanism already exists in Gurgaon where
the country's first fully privately-financed Rapid Metro Guragon Limited (RMGL)
has an arrangement wherein people can either mail queries on the RMGL website
or direct their RTI pleas to the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA)
under whose auspices the RMGL works.
However what could be discomforting for Mumbaikars
is that the Rapid Metro Gurgaon, with a 5.1-km route and 32,000 daily ridership, is a far smaller network when compared to the VAG which
once fully operational will carry more than 11 lakh passengers every day.
And moreover MMOPL, as reported earlier by dna, has sweeping powers on the
movable assets and landed properties of the VAG corridor as its administrator.
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