Probe ordered into disruption of Delhi Metro services

NEW DELHI - The Delhi Metro Saturday instituted an inquiry into the electrical fault in a coach which led to the stalling of services on the busy Jahangirpuri-Gurgaon stretch Friday evening, leaving thousands of commuters stranded. Full services only resumed Saturday morning.

A Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) spokesperson said managing director E. Sreedharan appointed a high-level committee headed by the executive director (electrical) to go into the cause of the incident.

“The committee will also suggest remedial measures to prevent such incidents in the future,” the spokesperson said.

Explaining the reasons for the complete stalling of line 2 from Jahangirpuri to HUDA City Centre from 7 p.m. onwards, the Metro official said the pantograph (device to collect electric current from overhead wires) of a train moving towards HUDA City Centre clashed with the overhead wires at Udyog Bhawan.

“This led to damage of the overhead electrification (OHE) wires from which the trains derive power. The damage took place on the neutral section near Udyog Bhawan, an area where the power supply switches from one source to another, and affected the pantograph of some more trains which in turn affected the OHE lines further on towards Gurgaon,” the official added.

Thousands of passengers on Delhi Metro’s Jehangirpuri-Gurgaon line were stranded Friday night due to the disruption.

In a bid to clear the crowd, four trains were run from Central Secretariat to HUDA city centre after 11 p.m. last night and also 23 buses from the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) were run on the same route. According to the official, a total of 7,000 people were cleared from the Central Secretariat Metro Station.

“A team of over 200 engineers and technicians of the DMRC worked the whole night till the early morning hours today (Saturday) to ensure smooth resumption of the services from 6 a.m.,” he said.

The official said that trials were also conducted on the stretch at 5 a.m. Saturday and regular services were resumed an hour later as per the schedule.

Of the over 200 staff, more than 150 officials from the electrical and maintenance wings worked on the timely restoration of the damaged portion of the OHE system, while another 50 worked at the Khyber Pass and Sultanpur Metro maintenance depots to repair the damaged pantograph of some trains.

According to the official, the movement of trains on the entire stretch is being closely monitored now as part of a safety measure and also, trains are being run at a restricted speed of 30 km/hour between Central Secretariat and Udyog Bhawan.

The longest line of the Delhi metro, the Jahangirpuri-Huda City Centre route is the second busiest stretch after Anand Vihar/Noida-Dwarka line.