Metro back on track: No rush, but loads of relief

Gurgaon: With thermal scanning and sanitisation of bags to social distancing stickers on platforms and inside trains, the Delhi Metro resumed its operations on the Yellow Line after five months to a lukewarm response from commuters.
Unlike the average footfall of around 1.5 lakh per day, Huda City Centre metro station, one of the busiest stations on the corridor, witnessed barely a few thousand commuters on the first day.
Platforms and trains were mostly empty on Monday. With the less number of commuters, security personnel and metro staff didn’t face problems in carrying out thermal scanning, sanitisation of bags and maintaining social distancing. All these arrangements will face the real test when the number of commuters increases in the coming days.
The resumption of metro services, however, has come as a relief for office-goers who have to travel within Delhi-NCR daily for work. More than fears of getting infected during metro travel, commuters expressed happiness that they won’t have to shell out huge amounts of money on cabs to reach their offices. Those who used buses or other modes of transportation also said the metro is much more convenient and saves travel time.
Khushi Kukreja, a resident of Ramprastha City in Sector 37, works with a medical equipment company in Green Park, Delhi. “I have to go to work three days a week. Every time, I have to spend over Rs 1,200 on cab fare. The metro is much more pocket-friendly,” she said.
Besides, Khushi expressed more faith in sanitisation and disinfection of the metro as compared to cabs. “The safety arrangements at the metro station are satisfactory and you can see that they are sanitising everything. In a cab, you don’t know whether the driver had sanitised his vehicle,” she added.
For Saraswati Mandal, a nurse at Safdarjung Hospital who resides in Wazirabad, resumption of metro services has made commuting to work much convenient. “I was going to the Kapashera border to catch a DTC bus to reach hospital. While social distancing norms are followed in the bus, everyone jostles to get inside while boarding. In contrast, the metro saves time is and is more convenient,” she said.
Delhi resident Santosh Kumar had been coming to his Gurgaon office on his motorcycle for several months. “I cannot afford to pay for a cab every day and had to travel over 100km daily on my bike in the absence of other options. Now, I can use the metro,” Kumar said.
Some offices have stopped providing cabs to their employees with the reopening of the metro. “We had been commuting via office cabs for the past few months. We have now received an email informing that cab service has been stopped from Monday as metro has resumed operation,” Sushil Kumar, a Sector 12 resident who works with a company in Delhi, said.
With only digital payments allowed, those who didn’t have smart cards faced problems. Satya Narayan, a resident of Rajendra Park who works at a shop in Chandni Chowk, was seen outside the metro station as he was denied entry without a smart card.
“My employer told me to join work from Monday as the metro has restarted. I used to buy tokens, but they are saying tokens aren’t available. I wanted to buy a smart card, but they refused to take cash. I don’t have an ATM card,” said Narayan.
Many shift back home
Rupesh Mishra, a resident of east Delhi, joined a Gurgaon-based company engaged in local transportation of parcels and food items in January. He had just settled in at work when the lockdown was announced.
“Initially, we worked from home, but our business expanded during the lockdown as there was huge demand for our service. When Unlock 1 began, we were told to report to the office. Daily commuting was a challenge so I shifted to Gurgaon with a colleague,” he said. With metro services resuming, he is moving back to live with his family in Delhi.
Rupesh is not the only one who had to relocate in the absence of metro services. Sapna Mehra, a Delhi resident who works with a leading private hospital in Gurgaon, too had to shift to the city as she was struggling to commute due to travel restrictions and lack of transportation options. “I shifted to Gurgaon for a few months. Now, I am back with my family in Delhi,” she said.