Debated in Parliament on 6 Nov 2017.
Mr Zaqy Mohamad asked the Minister for Transport (a) what are the findings from the Ministry's investigation of the cause of the MRT tunnel flooding on the North-South Line on 8 October 2017; (b) at the time the disruption announcement was made, whether SMRT was aware that the faults were due to tunnel flooding; (c) what measures have LTA and SMRT taken to ensure that tunnel floodings will be prevented in future; and (d) whether the Ministry will be appointing a Committee of Inquiry to review the incident.
Mr Gan Thiam Poh asked the Minister for Transport (a) whether there have been regular checks/maintenance on the water pumps in MRT stations to prevent their breakdown/malfunction; (b) if so, what is the frequency of such checks/maintenance; (c) whether there are back-up water pumps in the event of breakdowns; (d) what are other measures taken by the MRT operators to prevent flooding due to unforeseen weather conditions; and (e) what is the capacity of the water pump system and the extent to which it prevents flooding.
Dr Tan Wu Meng asked the Minister for Transport regarding the recent MRT train breakdown due to flooding of a tunnel near Bishan (a) what flood-resistance specifications are included in the tenders for such essential MRT infrastructure; (b) whether fail-safe redundancy at (i) system-level and (ii) component-level is a tender criterion; and (c) whether the future impact of climate change on rainfall is being considered, moving forward.
Mr Pritam Singh asked the Minister for Transport what are the "deep-seated cultural issues" afflicting SMRT as raised by the SMRT CEO during the press conference that was called in the aftermath of the tunnel flooding incident on 7 October 2017.
Dr Tan Wu Meng asked the Minister for Transport in light of the MRT tunnel flooding near Bishan, whether LTA will establish a Failure Mode and Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) team to (i) assess the failure resistance of essential transport infrastructure, such as the MRT, (ii) propose best practices for infrastructure tenders and (iii) search for vulnerabilities which may not fall within a single service provider's purview.
I thank the Members for their questions. I intend to respond to their questions and those filed by other Members fully by way of a Ministerial Statement on 7 November 2017. I invite the Members to seek clarifications, if any, after the Statement is delivered.
PAPERCUTS