Busan Universal Rail Inc., the former maintenance provider of MRT Line 3, said on Monday that the Department of Transportation has no technical experts to maintain the rail system.
BURI spokesperson and legal counsel, lawyer Maricris Pahate said the DOTr hired technicians of BURI who lack the skills needed to spearhead the operations.
“The technicians of BURI were very good if instructed by the managers but failed miserably because of lack of initiative and supervision. The so-called MRT 3 transition team is headed by Director Capati, who came from nowhere and has no clue on rail maintenance operations,” Pahate said.
“All the engineers of MRT 3 are on contractual basis, therefore are incapable and lack a sense of accountability,” she added.
Pahate said with no supervision from the expert managers of BURI, the technicians had no idea how to properly maintain the MRT 3.
"BURI maintenance operations was supervised and managed by experienced Korean rail engineers complemented by Filipino rail experts with vast experience in the industry not only in the country but from various countries. Each of the Filipino managers of BURI had 25 years of experience tagged to them,” she added.
Pahate said the entire MRT3 system has become not only unreliable but have put to great risk the lives and limbs of the riding public.
In a separate statement, DOTr said more than 50 railway engineers and experts from Japan International Cooperation Agency has started the due diligence and system audit of the MRT 3.
The system audit is a necessary step to determine all the rehabilitation and restoration works needed on the MRT 3 system, which will be done by a Jica-nominated rehabilitation and maintenance provider that will be mobilized in May.
A Japanese company designed and built the MRT 3 system from 1998 to 2000, and maintained it from 2000 to 2012.
“We obviously need all the help we can get and we are very grateful that the Japanese Government answered our call for assistance to rehabilitate and restore the MRT 3 system,” said OIC Undersecretary for Railways TJ Batan.
The system audit by JICA is separate from the ongoing Independent Audit and Assessment (IAA) by TUV Rheinland, an ISO 17020 and ISO 17065 certified and IFIA member certifier (International Federation of Inspection Agencies) for the entire MRT-3 system, including the 48 train cars from CRRC Dalian. The TUV Rheinland IAA started last Jan. 3 and has a three-month duration.
Batan added that additional trains on the MRT-3 may be expected within February since the first batch of spare parts that were ordered last December are scheduled to be delivered and installed this month. The spare parts that were already ordered have a delivery lead time of 30 days to 6 months.