Services on Line 2 (Jahangirpuri to HUDA City Centre) of the Delhi Metro were affected for over an hour during evening rush hours on Thursday because of an electrical fault.
“Metro Services of Line 2 were affected between Green Park metro station and Sultanpur metro station when a portion of over head electricity wire broke down near Qutub Minar metro station,” said a Delhi Metro Rail Corporation spokesperson.
According to the spokesperson, train services were affected between 6-32 p.m. to 7-20 p.m., causing inconvenience to commuters travelling from their offices in Delhi and Gurgaon.
“Single line operations were undertaken from 7-20 p.m. to 8-20 p.m. between Green Park and Sultanpur stations to carry passengers from one end to another,” added the spokesperson. Loop service continued to ferry passengers between Green Park and Jehangirpuri, and Sultanpur and HUDA City Centre stations during the time the problem existed, added the spokesperson.
Confusion prevailed at the stations and road traffic was also affected as commuters were told that metro services were not working at the stations. “I reached the Guru Dronacharya station around 7-10 p.m., and was told by a security personnel that trains were only running until the Sultanpur station,” said IT professional Bhawna Aggarwal, who wanted to go to Green Park.
Ms. Aggarwal added that there was no clear information available about what had happened and traffic jams were worsening the situation. “It was the driver of the auto I hailed who told me there had been a problem on the line,” she said.
Several commuters found out about the problem through friends and chose to look for alternate travel options. Traffic on the busy M. G. Road was also affected and jams were reported by several people on the Delhi Traffic Police's Facebook page.
Those who travelled on the loop service complained of extremely crowded trains and in some cases, vandalism.
“I boarded the train at the Patel Chowk metro station to go to Rajiv Chowk, and noticed that the entire station display panel inside my coach had been pulled out,” said human resource manager Jagan Singh.
“After undertaking urgent maintenance work of the affected portion near Qutub Minar, and normal train operation resumed between Green Park and Sultanpur stations at 8-22 p.m.,” added the spokesperson.
The DMRC said all other lines were unaffected and train services were running normal.
