Metro commuters on the Jehangirpuri-HUDA City Centre line, popularly known as the Yellow Line, were hit hard and left stranded during Tuesday morning rush hours after a train got stuck in the tunnel between Central Secretariat and Udyog Bhavan stations following a breakdown.
An eight-coach train going to HUDA City Centre faced technical problem in the middle of the tunnel between the two stations, forcing authorities to evacuate 1,791 passengers, including women and children, a senior Delhi Metro official said.
Commuters forced open the emergency door, disembarked and started to walk on the tracks towards Central Secretariat before they were escorted safely by the metro staff.
The DMRC has set up a three-member committee, comprising executive director (safety) S.C. Jindal, executive director (rolling stock) O.H. Pandey and general manager (operations) Vikash Kumar, to find out the causes of snag and to suggest evacuation procedures in the underground tunnel.
The train services were hit badly and remained suspended for about an hour-and-half, causing severe inconvenience to office-goers who were seen frantically searching for alternatives. The disruption led to bunching of trains on the corridor, which was cleared only by the evening.
“The train came to a halt at 9.24 am after its emergency brakes applied automatically due to some technical reason. The DMRC operations control centre and train staff attempted to troubleshoot and restart the train but failed,” said executive director (corporate communications) Anuj Dayal.
By 9.37 am, it was decided to evacuate the 1,791 passengers by using another train but the commuters forced open the emergency door and came out on the tracks, Mr Dayal said.
All the passengers were brought safely to Central Secretariat station, he said.
There was utter chaos at the metro stations between Udyog Bhavan and Green Park as people were stranded without any information.
The DMRC ran two short loop services between Green Park to HUDA City Centre and Central Secretariat to Jehangirpuri to clear the rush.
It also cancelled six round trips between Jehangirpuri and HUDA City Centre and four round trips between Vishwavidyalaya and Qutab Minar.
Five round trips were delayed and DMRC rushed two empty trains from Vishwavidyalaya to Rajiv Chowk and Kashmere Gate metro stations to clear the rush. The snag-hit train was later taken to Green Park Metro Station at around 11 am, after which services resumed but normalcy returned only by the evening.