Thousands of Delhi Metro passengers had to suffer after a technical snag hit train services between Dwarka and Noida City Centre/Vaishali during Friday morning peak hours.
The snag, which occurred around 9 am, took two hours to be rectified. Due to the slowing down of trains, there was absolute chaos along the 49 km Blue Line corridor that covers 43 stations in some of the most populous parts of the city.
Although the services continued to run, trains came after a gap of 11 minutes or so. Normally, a train plies every three minutes between Dwarka and Yamuna Bank. From there alternate trains ply to Vaishali and to Noida City Centre.
The crowd was menacingly thick at Rajiv Chowk, the busiest Delhi Metro interchange through which the Blue Line passes. Metro officials said the fault occurred at the Janakpuri West station’s overheard system which transmits electrical energy to trains.
A Metro official said regular announcements were made at all the stations about the technical problem and delayed running of trains.
The technical snag was detected around 9 am and set right only at 10.45 am. This is when the trains are normally packed because of the rush hour.
The Delhi Metro makes 2,400 trips a day covering about 70,000 kilometres. Its daily passenger load on working days is about 18 lakh.