Maha Metro board gives nod to install PSG and PSD on all metro stations

Nagpur: The Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation Limited (Maha-Metro) has taken a decision to install platform screen gates (PSGs) at 25 elevated and platform screen doors (PSDs) at five underground Metro rail stations in the city to prevent accidental falls, suicides and homicides.

The installation of PSGs and PSDs will cost an amount nearly Rs 170 crore and the Maha-Metro will manage to raise the money from its approved cost of Rs11,420 crore itself.

The Board of Directors (BoD) took this decision in the meeting held on Friday. According to Managing Director Brijesh Dixit, the provisions for PSGs and PSDs were not made in the detailed project report (DPR) sanctioned on January 9 last year. It was the same case with Nagpur Metro too. We incorporated it later and have ensured that all Metro stations will have PSGs. A similar thing has been done for Pune.

A four-member sub committee comprising Maha-Metro Managing Director Brijesh Dixit, Pune Municipal Commissioner Kunal Kumar, Directors NM Dhoke and Sunil Mathur have approved the proposal for installation of PSGs and PSDs.

According to sub-committee report, “In Delhi Metro, there have been many cases of suicides and even homicides due to pushing. There has been huge pressure on Metro authorities to take mitigation steps. Delhi Metro is retrofitting smaller PSGs on elevated stations in a phased manner. Provisions of PSGs and PSDs have been done in line-7 and 8 that are under construction. Similar initiatives have been taken up in Metro projects at Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Bengaluru that are under construction. The cost of retrofitting PSGs and PSDs is more than what would have been spent during the construction stage. Also, it will prevent from modifications in software, civil and telecom interfaces and obviate discomfort to passengers.”

As per the proposal, PSDs in five underground Metro stations will save power consumption by 22%. Stations where taller PSDs will be provided, there will be power saving in the air-conditioning load by saving outflow of cool air.

At present, the metro trains in Pune Metro is three-car carriage with a proposal to extend it to six.