Nearly 55,000 avail new Metro services on second day

Nearly 50,000 commuters availed the newly-inaugurated phase one of Metro 2A and 7 between Dahanukarwadi-Aarey-Dahisar on Sunday

Mumbai Nearly 55,000 commuters availed the newly-inaugurated phase one of Metro 2A and 7 between Dahanukarwadi-Aarey-Dahisar on Sunday.

On Saturday as well, a technical glitch was reported in a train going towards Aarey metro station from Kandivali at 10 pm (Vijay Bate)

“There was a welcoming crowd of passengers on the second day. There were a few delays and cancellation due to technical issues late Sunday morning. The operations will take some time to stabilise and this is expected in the coming days,” said a senior Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) official.

Even on the second day of operations, passengers complained of technical issues and delays. Commuters took to social media to express their ire. “Has already run into technical issues....trains running terribly late today. Couldn’t travel due to no trains :) Tweeting from Pahadi Eksar station…” tweeted @kamath_sandeep on Sunday.

“Yes, I was there in the train and some signalling issues had cropped up. The wait was for almost 15 mins. This was around 1.00 today afternoon,” tweeted @nvr75.

On Saturday as well, a technical glitch was reported in a train going towards Aarey metro station from Kandivali at 10 pm. Due to this, the speed of the Metro rake had to be brought down, said MMRDA officials. The officials added that the glitch was rectified and the rake reached its destination.

A senior MMRDA official said, “Saturday was the first time when we operated the new services for commuters. There might be some technical glitches, but we will overcome them in the coming days. The initial few days will be a learning experience.”

The first phase of 20km is between Dahanukarwadi of Line 2A and Aarey of Line 7. The entire length of both phases is around 35 km.

The new metro stretch was inaugurated by chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on the occasion of Gudi Padwa on Saturday. It is the second stretch of Metro corridor to be opened for the public after a gap of eight years. The 12-km metro line between Andheri-Ghatkopar and Versova started in June, 2014.