New Delhi: Delhi Metro commuters braved long queues on Thursday morning as services were delayed for three hours on Pink, Violet and Green lines due to a technical glitch in the signalling system. The snag hit the three lines early morning, affecting services from 8.05 am to 11.05 am, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) officials said. Many commuters took to social media to share pictures of passengers standing in long queues awaiting the arrival of trains, which were coming to stations at longer-than-normal intervals.
A large number of people, mainly office-goers, take the metro every morning to go to their workplaces in the national capital and neighboring cities. "No metro from last 20 minutes at Kashmere gate, heavy rush," a Twitter user, Mayank Sharma, said. Many commuters on these three lines also tweeted that they were "not informed" about the reason behind the delay. "Train services on Line-5 (Green Line i.e. Inderlok/Kirti Nagar to Brig. Hoshiar Singh), Line-6 (Violet Line i.e. Kashmere Gate to Raja Nahar Singh), Line-7 (Pink Line i.e. Majlis Park - Shiv Vihar) were affected today from 08:05 AM to 11:05 AM due to intermittent signalling issue (track circuit drop/loss of train IDs) resulting in movement of trains with restricted speed on manual mode with full safety," the DMRC said in a statement. The signalling issue was reported from these lines having the "Bombardier-based signalling system", it said.
During this period, services on these lines were regulated to minimize the duration of delay and inconvenience to passengers, the officials said. "As trains had to move with restricted speed due to absence of signals/IDs on these lines, induction of trains from the depots was regulated to eliminate bunching of trains and ensure smooth movement of trains," the DMRC said. Centralized announcements were done at frequent intervals at stations' premises and inside trains to inform passengers. Additional staff was deployed at some of the busy stations to ensure smooth passenger flow during the peak hours, the officials said. On Line-5 (Green Line), short looping of trains was also done on the section from Paschim Vihar to Inderlok to accommodate the rush of passengers from 9 am to 9.30 am, they added.
The signalling issue was resolved at 11.05 am, and thereafter normal train services were available on lines 5, 6 and 7, the DMRC said. It said it will be "further investigating and taking up the issue with Bombardier to avoid recurrence of such failures in the future". Earlier in the day, the DMRC had tweeted around 9 am to inform commuters about the delay in services on the three lines. "Service Update Delay in services on Violet, Green and Pink lines. Please allow for some extra time in your commute," it said.
Around 11.30 am, the DMRC tweeted again to announce that normal services had resumed. "Service Update. Services have been normalized. However, to avoid any further inconvenience, the system is still under observation. Passengers are requested to allow for some extra time in their commute," it said.
PTI
