New Delhi/noida: The Capital on Monday got its lifeline back after an almost month-long hiatus, during which the 2nd wave-induced lockdown had shut down all Metro services.
As the Delhi Metro resumed at 50 per cent capacity, all the while making announcements in trains to urge people to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour, residents in the city — most of whom these days are either essential workers or those working in construction and manufacturing — were overjoyed as their travel times would be significantly cut.
However, the overzealous response of the public to the Metro's reopening was seen when the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation on Monday evening said that it had to shut down 15 Metro stations temporarily to ensure Covid appropriate behaviour during the morning and evening peak hours.
While the guidelines do not allow any standing passengers in the trains, Monday saw DMRC flying squads de-board as many as 84 passengers for standing in the trains, penalise 73 people for not wearing masks and advise 106 people to follow social distancing norms.
In addition to commuters, for whom the Metro's reopening comes as a boon and many of whom promised not to lower their guard, security personnel manning the stations also welcomed passengers for the first time in weeks with a smile.
The DMRC said a total of around 4.5 lakh passenger journeys were recorded for Monday till 8 pm.
Meanwhile, the Noida Metro Rail Corporation (NMRC) has announced to start operations at Aqua line from Wednesday, June 9. "Keeping in view the night curfew, trains will be operated from 07 am to 08 pm on weekdays only while the train service will not be operated on Saturday and Sunday," said Ritu Maheshwari, Managing Director, NMRC.
As per officials, the peak hours of metro services will be from 8 am to 11 am and 5 pm to 8 pm. During peak hours, the trains will be available at gap of 30 minutes while rest of the hours, the trains will be available at an interval of 30 minutes. Only fast train will run on weekdays during peak hours. It will not stop on Sec-50, Sec-101, Sec-81, Sec -83, Sec-143, Sec-144, Sec-145, Sec-146, Sec-147, and Sec-148 stations.