For the first time in the history of Delhi Metro, train operations on the crowded Blue line (Noida City Centre/Vaishali to Dwarka Sector 21) remained disrupted for the entire day on Monday due to a major technical snag. Train services were affected since 8 am, causing great inconvenience to commuters.
While Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) said the fault occurred due to a signaling problem between Mandi House and Pragati Maidan, it did not rule out the possibility of major cable damage or theft as the cause for the disruption. Scores of commuters and office-goers were delayed as the trains were operated at a restricted speed of 25 kmph, even during the peak hours in this section, leading to uneven frequency of trains on the route. The enormity of the technical problem that persisted throughout the day forced DMRC to take remedial action.
DMRC said its Director (Operations), Sharat Sharma, has constituted a three-member fact-finding committee of senior officers to investigate and cable theft cannot be ruled out as the reason for the fault. Delhi Metro engineers who were trying to rectify the problem could not succeed as the problem will have to be rectified by replacing the entire cable on the affected section.
“Due to this, maintenance work will be taken up at night after the passenger services are over. The problem will be rectified by Tuesday morning,” said a DMRC spokesperson. Meanwhile, hundreds of passengers using the Blue line Metro were delayed due to bunching of trains on the route. Huge crowds were seen during the morning and evening rush hours on busy metro stations like Rajiv Chowk, Mandi House, Yamuna Bank and Noida, Sector 18.
Due to overcrowding, trains were made to pass through the Mandi House Station's platform Number 2 from 12.15 pm. DMRC said that the problem had occurred due to damage or theft in the signaling cable measuring around 700 meter connecting the track circuits to the junction box between the Pragati Maidan and Mandi House Metro stations on the up line (towards Dwarka). “Due to this, metro trains going towards Dwarka were moving at a restricted speed of upto 25 kmph between Pragati Maidan and Mandi House stations.
“The trains were slowed down significantly as the automatic target speed was not available in this affected section since the Automatic Train Protection system was not activated due to disruption in the cable. This led to slow movement of trains on line 3 and 4. In order to cater to the peak hour rush, DMRC has inducted three additional trains from Indraprastha to Dwarka and necessary announcements are also being made at the stations advising the commuters about the movement of trains,” added the spokesperson.
Regular commuters on the corridor complained that it is prone to technical snags. “It has become a norm for commuters on the Blue line to be stuck in the trains due to technical glitches. Even a short distance from Mayur Vihar to Noida Sector 18 took one-and-a-half hours due to frequent halts today. Normally, it takes 15 minutes to cover this distance. As the trains were arriving at the stations after a long wait of 30 to 40 minutes, they were running packed to capacity,” said Astha Kathuria, a Delhi University student, who finally had to take an auto to reach her residence in Noida City Centre as it had got stuffy inside the coach.