Metro services curtailed on Red Line

The commuters had a harrowing day on the first day of odd-even in the city as the busy Red Line of Delhi Metro came to halt from 1.30 pm to 5.50 pm on Friday. The cascading effect of this technical snag also derailed the Metro operation on other routes and made commuters’ lives miserable in this scorching heat. 

According to the Metro officers, electricity wire on which Metro runs broke at four locations between Kashmere Gate and Shastri Park Metro stations en-route Dilshad Garden. The service was affected for more than five hours. 

Meanwhile, Delhi Transport minister Gopal Rai also visited Shashtri Park Metro station to take stock of the situation in the evening. 

Rai claimed that 10 additional DTC by buses were plying between Kashmere Gate and Dilshad Garden. 

Passengers were also stranded in the premium Airport Express Line for around 25 minutes in the morning after the doors of a train developed snag at the IGI Airport station. On Red Line, trains are running in a short loop between Tis Hazari and Rithala stations and on a single line between Kashmere Gate and Dilshad Garden stations. Later, services were temporarily suspended at Shahdara Metro station due to slow frequency of trains on the Red Line. There was a ruckus at Kashmere Gate Metro station. Thousands of passengers were stuck at the station premises. I was already late for office and it took me another 15 minutes to exit the station,” said Rajiv, a regular commuter.

Ravi Sharma boarded the Metro from Kashmere Gate station at 2 pm and reached Rajeev Chowk at around 4 pm. “I was stuck here in the Metro for almost two hours and the service is badly affected. It is very slow and I am not sure at what time I will reach at Kohat,”  said Sharma.

Meanwhile, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) said that the train services were mainly affected from 12.37 pm to 5.50 pm. 

“During this period, trains were run in two loops on Line 1. Single line operations were undertaken between Kashmere Gate and Dilshad Garden section on the Down line to carry the passengers from one end to another, which resulted in availability of trains at a higher interval (around 20 minutes) on the stations falling on this section. Trains were run in short loop from Tis Hazari to Rithala section of Line-1 during this period. Thus, trains were available as per normal schedule in this section during the above mentioned period,” said DMRC in a press statement.

“In order to ensure that the repair work was undertaken on a priority basis and to minimise the impact on services, specialized OHE teams comprising 5-6 members each rushed to the site immediately from all the maintenance depots of the Delhi Metro — Najafgarh, Sarita Vihar, Shastri Park, Khyber Pass, Sultanpur, Mundka and Yamuna Bank. Normalcy was restored between Kashmere Gate and Dilshad Garden stations at 5.50 pm,” it added.