Technical snag hits Delhi Metro's Violet Line during rush hour

NEW DELHI: Thousands of Delhi Metro commuters travelling on the Violet Line (Kashmere Gate-Escorts Mujesar) faced a harrowing time on Friday after a technical snag disrupted train services for one-and-a-half hours during peak morning rush hour.
A snag in the electrification system brought services to a grinding halt at 8.34 am. Even after the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) started single line operations, train services remained slow.

"It took 30 minutes for a train to arrive and then train services were extremely slow and it took 45 minutes to travel 10 stations," said Puneet Sharma, a commuter. "The train kept stopping between stations and then for at least five minutes at each station," he said.

"I boarded a train at Sarita Vihar station at around 9 am and the train kept standing at the station for 40 minutes. Even after the train started moving, it was extremely slow," said Ishani Mathur, another commuter.

"Train Services were affected between the Kashmere Gate and Central Secretariat stations of Line-6 from 8.34 am to 10.02 am today. There was intermittent OHE tripping on the up line section between Central Secretariat and Mandi House (going towards Kashmere Gate)," a DMRC spokesman said. "As a result, services were run on single line from Kashmere Gate to Central Secretariat during this period so that the OHE staff could identify and rectify the OHE tripping cause by going into the affected section," he said.

"The problem was rectified at 10.02 am and normalcy restored in the affected section. Services on the rest of Line-6 from Central Secretariat to Escorts Mujesar section were running normally during this period," claimed the spokesman.

Commuters said that announcements were made that passengers could use the Yellow Line (Samaypur Badli-HUDA City Centre) instead of the Violet Line, particularly those travelling between Kashmere Gate and Central Secretariat stations.