Metro commuters unhappy with limited station gates

New Delhi: Despite being largely overwhelmed by the resumption of Metro services in the Capital after a prolonged shutdown due to the pandemic, daily commuters have questioned the rationale behind reopening a limited number of entry gates at stations which they said has only added to their travel woes.

Several passengers claimed that they have to brave traffic and cover a long distance on foot or a rickshaw in order to reach the only entry point operational at Metro stations.

At the Udyog Bhavan Metro Station, at around 6 pm, one could see a long serpentine queue of passengers stretching up to several metres with no regard for social distancing norms. One of them, Kalicharan, a government employee, travelling to Jhilmil on the Red Line, said that unlike earlier when two gates used to open for entering the station, now only the Gate No.1 has been designated as the entry point. "The crowd today is still less compared to what it has normally been after the services reopened," he said. Saying that there is no staff to ensure proper safety protocol, Kalicharan said that such a move only adds to the problem and ensures unnecessary congestion outside stations.

Standing behind him, Santosh, travelling to Chattarpur on the Yellow Line, said that due to only one exit gate, he has to walk through the traffic in order to reach his office at the Commerce Ministry, adding to the distance, unlike earlier when it was just a 2-minute walk.

Similarly, at the Sarita Vihar Metro Station, where several commuters could be seen hurriedly crossing the road running between the two station gates, Monu Kumar, travelling to Kalkaji Mandir on the Violet Line, said that he had to shell out Rs 20 for a trip he could have very well made on foot had both the gates of the station reopened. "I took an auto-rickshaw as the cars barely stop for pedestrians and the traffic signal is quite far away," he said. "I face the same situation at several other stations where I have to spend some money in order to cover a distance of only 300 metres," Kumar added. "If all the metro services have resumed, what is the point of closing some of the gates causing further harassment," he asked.

Rajeev Shrivastava, another commuter, echoed the same sentiments saying that even though he has his own bike to reach the station, allowing all the metro gates to reopen would allow passengers to spread out and prevent any scope of chaos.

Outside the Rajiv Chowk Metro Station too, at around 7:00 PM, one could see hordes of passengers waiting endlessly for their turn to enter the terminal with only Gate No. 7, out of a total of eight gates, opened for service. Pankaj, a commuter travelling from Rohini, said that it will now take around half-an-hour extra for him to reach his destination adding that around three to four more gates should be allowed to reopen keeping in mind the rush-hour footfall.

Meanwhile, Delhi Metro Railway Corporation (DMRC), in a Twitter response to several complaints from commuters requesting reopening of more station gates, stated that, "For preventing the spread of COVID-19, we are currently limiting the number of entry/exit gates at all metro stations. Staff has been deployed to ensure adherence to the social distancing norms".