The inbuilt irony of Kolkata’s Metro operations has been exposed yet again. This time, the glitz has coincided with the exposure of the underbelly. Thursday’s ha-ha of the authorities at the Noapara car shed was neutralised by the crippling inconvenience that commuters had to suffer during the morning peak hour. In parallel to the grandstanding that marked the arrival of the swanky made-in-China rake, peak hour services were disrupted by what they call a technical glitch. As it turned out, it was more than merely technical. It is pretty obvious that there has been little action, corrective and enduring, since the Metro fire some weeks ago, an incident that resulted in grievous injuries to many a commuter desperately trying to jump onto platforms by breaking the glass panels. Sparks in the “third rail” ~ the current connector ~ brought the train to a halt on Thursday morning. The nature of the mishap is testament to the poor maintenance of the track and the train, both so outdated as to render the system out of joint ever so frequently. It is a measure of the decrepit urban transportation that the impact of Metro suspension is felt almost immediately across the city, with buses unable to bear the load. Once the East-West line is on track, the overwhelming predicament in the event of disruption will be too awesome even to imagine not the least because of the common CR Avenue-Mahatma Gandhi Road intersection. Well might the new service, courtesy Japanese assistance, boast new rakes, but the North-South service, which dates back to October 1984, remains vulnerable to dislocation and frequently so.

The drum-beating of the Metro authorities over the facilities of the rake from China chimes oddly with the reality of its dated infrastructure. It may be comforting to reflect on the facilities of the acquisition from Dalian in China ~ wider vestibules, three cameras in every coach, a talk-back system that will enable the motorman to readily identify the glitch in a particular coach, 28-tonne air-conditioners, and a capacity to carry 3200 passengers with a maximum speed of 90 kilometres per hour. For all that, the lack of maintenance has been the bane of the old rakes, and this fundamental deficiency can scarcely be compensated by one state-of-the-art acquisition.

The contrast is much too glaring to the commuter, his patience sorely tried by disruptions, that can extend to hours, and suffocatingly overcrowded coaches. In point of fact, the term “Metro” has become a misnomer over time. Actually, however, it functions as an extension of the suburban line, one that runs through the city. Its purpose of sprucing up Kolkata’s conveyance network was long ago defeated. For all the ceremonial unveiling of the new, the old has suffered negligent nonchalance.