Delhi Metro services come to a halt after mild tremors in national capital; lead to crowding outside stations

While limited number of entry gates to regulate passenger movement inside stations and trains has been causing long queues outside stations, the situation was expected to marginally improve from Monday as the Metro authorities had announced reopening of 16 additional gates besides operating trains at full capacity.

However, the tremors played spoilsport here. “Mild tremors were confirmed at around 6.42 am in the morning. As a standard procedure, trains were run on cautionary speed and stationed at the next platform. The services are now running normally,” the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) said in a statement on Monday morning.

Many passengers took to Twitter, pointing out that metro authorities should have made the announcement inside and outside stations immediately after the services were stopped.

“On the Blue Line, the queues outside most stations stretch over half a kilometre. There is no use of 100 per cent seating,” wrote one Kumar, while Mohit Aggrawal posted, “Thanks for informing in such a real time when we were forced to wait outside Nangloi metro stn for approx 45 mins with no official announcement from DMRC officials present there.”

“Been waiting at the metro since 45mins with no information and DMRC is tweeting now… Horrible !” read another tweet by commuter Tanyaa Aggarwal. Many also posted pictures of crowding outside stations.

The stations where additional gates have been opened from Monday include Uttam Nagar east, Dwarka Mor, Vaishali, Noida Sector 18, Noida City Centre, GTB Nagar, Kashmere Gate, Central Secretariat and MG Road.

Between June 7, when metro services resumed after the lockdown, and July 25, trains operated at 50 per cent seating capacity, with standing commute completely prohibited.

Last Saturday, the Delhi government lifted the cap on seating, while retaining the restriction on standing passengers. As a result, an eight-coach train was carrying around 400 passengers. In the absence of any restrictions, the same train could carry up to 2,400 passengers, metro sources said.