'We had no power': Ex-SMRT CEO

TNP FILE PHOTO

Last December, SMRT struggled to cope with two major train breakdowns which affected thousands of commuters.

But SMRT couldn’t get help from government agencies to clear the roads so that buses could get to the stranded commuters quicker, ex-SMRT CEO Saw Phaik Hwa (above) told The New Paper in an interview in March.

The Committee of Inquiry (COI) has now revealed that there was an absence of contingency planning for a crisis.

But few knew at the time that SMRT could not activate government resources in a crisis – except in cases involving death.