Storm paralyses Metro services for over an hour, thousands stranded

New Delhi: Thousands of Delhi Metro commuters were stranded on Sunday evening, as operations were hit severely due to a squall and sudden dust storm, which crippled two major Delhi Metro lines for well over an hour and affected third as well. Services, however, later resumed on some shorter routes.

The storm, with wind speeds of up to 70 km per hour accompanied by rains, forced the suspension of Metro services in at least three places of the sprawling network, a spokesperson for Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) stated.

The official added that disruptions occurred after trees in parts of the Capital were toppled by the winds on to the overhead wires on the winding Blue Line and the equally busy Violet line. Services on the Magenta Line were also hit.

Commuters faced extended halts at various stations and asked to empty the trains midway across the entire Blue Line, which links Dwarka in west Delhi with Vaishali and Noida in Uttar Pradesh.

The spokesperson also said that on the Violet Line, trains ran on short loops from Sarita Vihar to Escorts Mujesar and Nehru Place to Kashmere Gate from 5 pm to 5.40 pm.

"This was necessitated due to falling of a tree on down line OHE (going towards Kashmere Gate) between Okhla and Jasola stations due to sudden thunderstorm and rain. Everything normalised at 5:40 pm," the official said.

On the Blue Line, services between Noida Sector-16 and Noida City Centre were unavailable since 5.15 pm due to damage to OHE (over head equipment) on down section.

Similarly, services between Inderprashtha and Karol Bagh in the same line were also interrupted due to a tree falling on Rajiv Chowk to RK Ashram up section (going towards Dwarka), as a result of which people were forced to take other forms of transport.

The DMRC spokesperson said the overhead damage was repaired and trains began normal services by 6.50 pm.

However, many commuters complained of long waits at Blue Line stations till as late as 7.30 pm, due to piled up passenger load.

Although only two lines were majorly disrupted, services were affected across the city and its neighbourhood, since the trains link up with other lines at select points.

"Normal services restored between Noida City Centre to Noida Sector-16 section from 6.50 pm onwards and from Indraprastha to Karol Bagh section of Blue Line at 7.37 pm," the official said.

He further said that at 7.44 pm, all lines began functioning as per normal schedule.

"No problem was then seen anywhere in the network," said DMRC in a statement.

Delhi Metro transports about 27 to 30 lakh passengers each day and its current operational network is over 252-km.