Kolkata Metro rake snag leaves passengers in shock for 2 hours

A morning-hour snag in a non-AC Metro rake off Park Street station on Monday left passengers in a state of shock as the train stopped suddenly in the tunnel and the lights also went off.

The incident, which took place at 11.25 am, unnerved passengers who were either office-goers or school students and had to wait inside the pitch-dark train till the Metro authorities came to their rescue.

The rake developed a snag soon after leaving the Park Street station heading north towards Dum Dum.

Thousands of commuters were inconvenienced as normal services were disrupted for about two hours.

The passengers were evacuated from the rake with ladders. ‘We had to wait for a long time in darkness till we were rescued from the hell hole,’ one of the traumatised passengers said.

Denying the charge, the Metro authorities and said that the crisis management team was swift to swing into action and evacuate stranded passengers from the tunnel.

‘The crisis management team swung quickly into action and all the passengers were brought out safely from the train after evacuating them along the tracks onto the Park Street station platform,’ CPRO of Metro Railway RN Mahapatra said.

Mahapatra said that power was switched off to de-energise the third rail, from which the train draws power, for evacuating the passengers.

The railway authorities ran truncated services from Dum Dum to Central on one side and Mahanayak Uttamkumar (Tollygunge) to Kavi Subhas (New Garia) on the other side.

Mahapatra said that an inquiry had been ordered.

Kolkata Metro is the first underground Metro railway in India. It extends from DumDum near Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Air Port, Kolkata to Kavi Subhash station near Patuli, the busy North-South axis of Kolkata over a length of 25.135 kms. 

The Metro railway, Kolkata was constructed progressively from 1972 to 2010. Phase-I a length of 16.450 kms from DumDum to Tollygunge (Mahanayak Uttam Kumar) having been completed in 1995 and in Phase-II a length of 5.834 kms from Mahanayak Uttam Kumar to Kavi Nazrul station is completed in August-2009. 

The last leg upto Kavi Subhash a length of 2.851 kms has been opened in October8,2010 for commercial operation.