Thousands stranded in Delhi as Metro trains fail

Thousands of Delhi Metro commuters had a harrowing experience today, as services on the busy Blue Line — which connects Dwarka with Noida and Vaishali — were hit due to a snag in its track circuit.

Thousands of Delhi Metro commuters had a harrowing experience on Monday, as services on the busy Blue Line — which connects Dwarka with Noida and Vaishali — were hit due to a snag in its track circuit.

HT Image

The problem started at 8am — the rush hour for office-goers.

"Train services were affected due to a track circuit problem. It was a signalling problem detected between the Mandi House and Pragati Maidan section,” said Anuj Dayal, chief spokesperson of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC).

Trains were running at a speed of 25 km per hour, he said. Usually, Delhi Metro trains run at a speed exceeding 40 km per hour.

“Dropping of track circuit is not an unusual problem. But it never takes such a long time for repairing and restoration,” a DMRC spokesperson said.

Many commuters finally got off from trains and left the stations to catch autos and buses to reach their destination.

“It took me 25 minutes to reach Indraprastha from Akshardham (a ride that generally takes less than 10 minutes). I came out of the system and caught an auto to reach Barakhamba,” said Fazal Haider, a commuter.

Nalini Singh, who boarded a train at Vaishali to reach Rajiv Chowk, said she got off the train at Lakshmi Nagar and hired an auto to reach her destination.

As far as technical snag is concerned, this is the worst-affected metro line that carries about 8 lakh commuters daily. On October 25, a major technical snag near Yamuna Bank station left hundreds of commuters stranded for hours after the signalling system near the Yamuna Bank interchange station failed to set directions for trains coming from Dwarka. On August 20, Delhi Metro services were badly hit on the Dwarka-Noida line due to technical problems.

DMRC’s operations director, Sharat Sharma, has recently said the corporation could not ascertain the reasons for repeated technical snags on the line.

Previous snags on Blue Line

Oct 25: Service disrupted after the signalling system near Yamuna Bank interchange station failed to set directions for trains coming from Dwarka.

August 20: Delhi Metro services were badly hit on the Dwarka-Noida line due to technical problems

Aug 16: Metro services were disrupted after trains were delayed and many were left stranded at various stations on Dwarka-Noida line due to a problem in the Overhead Electrification (OHE)

July 29: Metro services on Blue line to Noida were disrupted for two hours due to OHE problem between Shadipur and Patel Nagar stations