Delhi Metro closes entry gates of several metro stations to 'ensure social distancing'

New Delhi: To ensure social distancing, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on Tuesday temporarily closed entry points of several metro stations.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had announced a six-day lockdown in Delhi to deal with the rising number of COVID-19 cases as the city''s health system was stretched to its limits.

"Entry for the following stations have been temporarily closed to ensure social distancing as part of our crowd control measures: Jhandewalan, RK Ashram Marg, Karkardooma, Preet Vihar, Nirman Vihar, Supreme Court, Anand Vihar, ISBT, Vaishali," the DMRC said in a series tweet.

However, exit for all the temporarily closed stations is allowed, it informed the commuters.

Other temporarily closed stations are: Shadipur, Dwarka mor, Tagore Garden, Rajouri Garden, Patel Nagar, Subhash Nagar, Kirti Nagar, Rajendra Place, Moti Nagar, Bahadurgarh City, Brigadier Hoshiar Singh, Shyam Park, Raj Bagh and Mohan Nagar.

Also, according to the DMRC, restricted entry is allowed for stations such as Rajiv Chowk, MG Road, New Delhi and Chandni Chowk as part of the crowd control measures.

Metro trains are running on a reduced frequency during the six-day lockdown imposed in Delhi due to an exponential rise in coronavirus cases.

"Services during morning (8 am to 10 am) and evening (5 pm to 7 pm) peak hours across the network will be available with a headway (frequency) of 30 minutes," the DMRC said in a statement on Monday.

"For the rest of the hours of the day, services across the network will be available with a frequency of 60 minutes only," it added.

Metro services can be availed only by the exempted category of people on production of a valid identity proof.