Metro’s bad run continues, another coach derails

A Metro train with 14 passengers on board went off the rails just after it started its first run of the day on Sunday from the Yamuna Bank station in East Delhi.

A Metro train with 14 passengers on board went off the rails just after it started its first run of the day on Sunday from the Yamuna Bank station in East Delhi.

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Seconds after it left the station, at 6.02 am, the second coach derailed. None of the passengers were injured. The passengers were removed and all operations on the stretch betw-een Yamuna Bank and the next station Indraprastha, stopped.

Exactly a month ago, a Metro train had derailed near Dwarka station in southwest Delhi. At the time, Metro authorities had blamed ‘human error’.

“It seems there was something wrong with the rail track,” said Anuj Dayal, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) spokesman. “Both track and train had gone through the usual maintainence checks the night before.”

The DMRC acted swiftly to suspend a junior engineer who was in charge of track maintainence in that area. It has also set up an enquiry committee.

Though it had a flawless record for the first six years of its existence since it was formed in December 2002, the DMRC has been plagued by a number of accidents this year.