Signal failure hits Delhi Metro, commuters

Thousands of commuters on Wednesday had to face troubles owing to technical snags in the Delhi Metro`s Blue Line, when trains on the route lost contact with the control centre, first intermittently then completely, resulting at last in total "loss of view" for trains on the entire line.

The line that connects Dwarka in west Delhi to Vaishali in Ghaziabad and Noida was hit by signal failure between its Karol Bagh and Dwarka section first, and later between 3 p.m and 3.30 p.m on the entire route.

"The view and control of the signalling and Automatic Train Control system on Blue Line (Dwarka Sec-21 to Noida City Centre/Vaishali) at Operations Control Centre (OCC) was intermittently getting lost today (Wednesday) between Karol Bagh and Dwarka section. As a result, trains were being locally controlled as and when such loss happened, resulting into bunching/ hold-up of trains for brief spells.

"Between 3 p.m and 3.30 p.m, the loss of view was for the entire Blue Line which created bunching on overall line before being restored again at 3.30 p.m," an official from the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation told IANS.

The trains during this time took inordinately long halts at stations, according to commuters, even lasting up to 15-20 minutes. The long delay between trains resulted in huge crowded at such stations as Rajiv Chowk, Yamuna Bank and Mandi House, which see a heavy footfall anyway.

"Even after an hour, the train moved barely three stations and stopped for several minutes at each station," a commuter, who boarded the Metro from Rajiv Chowk for Noida, told IANS.

Finally, the issue was resolved at 4.23 p.m and since then trains were reported to be running smoothly.