DMRC's Blue, Pink lines reopen; interchange facility at 9 stations start after 171-day COVID hiatus

Delhi Metro's Blue Line and Pink Line resumed services with interchange facilities at nine stations on Wednesday after being closed for 171 days due to the COVID-19 pandemic, officials said. The services resumed with curtailed operations on these two lines at 7 am with strict safety and social distancing measures being in place.

Trains are operating in two batches of four-hour each from 7-11 am and 4-8 pm in the first stage.

"The Blue and Pink lines resumed services today. Slowly and steadily, Delhi Metro will be back to take you places! #MetroBackOnTrack," the DMRC tweeted.

With services available on multiple lines from Wednesday onwards (Yellow, Blue and Pink Lines), the total ridership for the day was nearly 53,400, the DMRC said in a statement.

The approximate figures for the three corridors are -- Yellow Line (26,900), Blue Line (22,600) and Pink Line (3,900), it said.

However, it is clarified that actual utilisation of a metro system is reflected from the number of journeys performed by a passenger in completing his or her journey by using one or more lines (line utilisation) and not by ridership alone, it said.

Therefore, provision of sharing ridership figures is an interim arrangement till all lines are re-opened by September 12, the DMRC said.

To reflect the true utilisation of Delhi Metro's network by passengers, the DMRC will revert to line utilisation (passenger journeys) figures after September 12.

Earlier in the day, some riders wearing face masks were seen entering the premises of key stations like Rajiv Chowk, Noida Sector 15 and Anand Vihar on the Blue Line, which connects Dwarka Sector 21 in Delhi to Electronic City (Noida) and Vaishali (Ghaziabad). Pink Line connects Majlis Park to Shiv Vihar.

Raj Kumar, who boarded the Metro at Anand Vihar, said that he faced no inconvenience during his journey.

"There was no issue regarding social distancing. I have to go to Rajiv Chowk and the journey was smooth, but we are not sure during our journey which gate is open and which is not," Kumar said.

According to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), the Blue and Pink lines will ensure availability of nine of the existing 28 interchange Metro stations, including Rajouri Garden (Blue Line & Pink Line); INA Delhi Haat (Yellow & Pink Line); Mayur Vihar Phase ? I (Blue Line & Pink Line); Rajiv Chowk (Blue Line & Yellow Line); Anand Vihar ISBT (Blue Line & Pink Line) and Sikanderpur (Yellow Line & Rapid Metro).

On Monday, the Delhi Metro had resumed services with curtailed operations on the Yellow Line. Metro services in the National Capital Region had been closed since March 22 due to the pandemic.

The Ministry of Home Affairs had recently issued guidelines allowing the Delhi Metro to resume operations in a graded manner, following which the DMRC had said it would be done in three stages from September 7-12.

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In addition to Yellow, Blue and Pink lines, three more lines --- Red Line (Rithala to Shaheed Sthal New Bus Adda (Ghaziabad); Green Line (Kirti Nagar/Inderlok to Brig. Hosihar Singh (Bahadurgarh); and Violet Line (Kashmere Gate to Raja Nahar Singh (Ballabhgarh) -- will also resume services from September 10 with the same time schedule.

The DMRC said the entire Metro network will resume normal services from September 12.