At Vaishali station, Delhi Metro staffers outnumber riders

GHAZIABAD: At 7am on Wednesday, the usual hustle of Vaishali metro station was missing.
The 18-odd passengers who had come to Vaishali to board a metro train as services resumed on the Blue Line on Wednesday morning after five months, were greeted by personnel of Ghaziabad police and civil defence at the entry gate. Only gate number 1 was opened at the station.
Passengers were subjected to thermal screening at the entry gate itself. “Though thermal screening is very common these days, witnessing it at a metro station looks a bit odd,” said a passenger.
Once inside the station, red lines for social distancing and regular announcement for Covid-related precautions greeted the commuters. Frisking was contactless, as the CISF personnel used metal detectors to scan passengers.
“It’s so quiet at the station. The metro staff and security personnel outnumbered commuters,” said Rohan Mishra, who was among the first to board a train. “In these five months, things have changed so much.”
Though the 18 commuters were the first to board a train, some 150 passengers availed the services from this station till 11am, DMRC officials said.
Ghaziabad district magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey said, “We have deployed 104 personnel to assist in crowd managment.”