KOLKATA: Metro
services were disrupted for over an hour during the evening peak hours of Monday after smoke was detected under a coach of a Dum Dum-bound non-AC train at the Mahatma Gandhi Road station. There was some panic after the motorman first started from the station and then stopped before asking commuters to get off.
"Smoke was detected by station staff under the coach and the motorman immediately stopped the train. Regular announcements were made at the station and inside the train, urging people to get off. Senior officers, including Metro general manager P C Sharma, was at the control room to monitor operations during the crisis. There were announcements at other stations as well to inform people of the delay. We also started truncated services between the Maidan and Kavi Subhas stations," Metro Railway CPRO Indrani Banerjee said.
The train that was involved in the incident was packed with people returning home from work and many of them claimed they faced severe trouble after leaving the station. "All north-bound buses were packed to capacity and there were severe traffic jams all along
Chittaranjan Avenue," a commuter said.
Amit Roy, another commuter, took a bus towards Sealdah to board a suburban train to Dum Dum. "All trains were packed as it was the evening peak period. It was difficult hanging on to the door of a coach," he said.
Some time later, Metro started truncated services between Girish Park and Dum Dum but people found it difficult to travel between Maidan and Girish Park. Normalcy was finally restored at 7.38pm and
engineers detected tripping of power in the third rail to be the cause behind the smoke. "There was some trouble at the point from where the third rail receives power from the sub-station. An inquiry has been ordered," an official said.
