Just a few days after the September 2 ordeal, Delhi Metro commuters again faced a harrowing time during the peak morning hours on Wednesday when a technical snag affected services on the Dwarka Sector 21 to Noida City Centre line for around 45 minutes. The snag resulted in trains running slow and halting for several minutes at many stations leading to overcrowding.
Operations on the Blue line were affected at 9.15 am when the power brakes of a Noida-bound train had to be slammed restricting the train’s movement. later the train was removed from the tracks and sent for repair. Commuters traveling during peak office hours had to face a lot of inconvenience as the train had to be removed from the tracks and another train was pressed into service, which caused delay. All passengers on board were asked to alight.
“Metro services from Dwarka Sector 14 to Dwarka Sector-21 on the Dwarka-Noida City Centre line were briefly affected today due to a technical problem with a train after it started moving towards Noida from Dwarka Sector-14 at 9.15 am as its power brakes were applied, restricting forward movement,” a Delhi Metro official said in a statement.
The statement added that immediate troubleshooting was attempted by sending a technical team under the frame of the train to release its brakes, but the train was not able to move forward. “...In order to avoid any unwarranted delay and the cascading effect in the services on the entire line, it was preferred to de-board around 500 passengers from the train which was withdrawn from service and was sent to the depot for further investigation at 10 am,” the statement added.
Single line operation was introduced between the Dwarka and Dwarka Sector 21 stations and vice versa from 9.15 am to 10 am. Normal services were restored at 10 am. “I boarded a train at 9.15 am from Dwarka Sector 9 Station which kept still rill 10 am. I reached office in Noida at 12 pm,” said Sangeeta, a commuter. On an average, nearly seven lakh passengers travel daily by the Blue line.
On September 2 Metro commuters had a harrowing time as services were hit on the Dwarka-Noida City Centre/ Vaishali line as a portion of the overhead electricity wire of the track going towards Dwarka snapped between Janakpuri West and Uttam Nagar East stations.