Technical snag disrupts Metro service for 2 hrs

Kolkata: Metro services were disrupted on Wednesday after an AC rake stopped just before entering the tunnel at Dum Dum due to a technical snag. Passengers were evacuated and had to walk approximately 500 metres to reach the Dum Dum station. Normal service resumed after almost two hours.

According to the passengers, at around 1 pm on Wednesday, a Kavi Subhas bound AC rake left Dum Dum station. Within minutes, it suddenly came to a halt for no reason just before entering the tunnel. The motorman of the rake tried to start it repeatedly but failed. Later, he noticed that due to some reason power supply was cut off from the third rail.

It was alleged by the passengers that they were stuck for almost an hour inside the rake. Later, Metro authorities decided to evacuate the passengers after a power block. Several passengers alleged that they were facing immense trouble breathing inside the rake, as the windows of AC rakes are sealed.

After being evacuated, the passengers had to walk along the Metro track all the way to the Dum Dum station. Meanwhile, truncated Metro services were on between Kavi Subhas and Girish Park.

Metro Railway authorities claimed that after the motorman failed to start the rake, he used the passenger address system to ask them to calm down and wait as necessary action was being taken. The passengers claimed that the announcement was clear enough to understand.

Later, they were assured that the rake will be taken to the platform as it had developed some technical snag. But after almost one hour, the

passengers were asked to evacuate.

Spokesperson of Metro Railway Indrani Banerjee informed that the rake had left Dum Dum station on 12:58 pm and the technical glitch developed at 1 pm, due to which the rake came to a halt. It had stopped almost 700 metres away from the platform and 330 metres before the tunnel entrance.

"The motorman tried to start the rake for almost 15 minutes but failed. Later, passengers were evacuated after disconnecting the third line and taken to Dum Dum. Normal services resumed at 3:14 pm," said Banerjee.

In another incident, a flash was seen under the third compartment of a Dum Dum-bound non-AC Metro rake at Kavi Nazrul station at 7:35 pm. After some mechanical checks, normal services resumed at 7:41 pm on Wednesday.