Thousands left stranded by Delhi Metro security drills

Civil Defence and CISF personnel carry an injured during a mock security drill on Delhi Metro at the Mandi House in New Delhi on Friday. Photo: V. V. Krishnan.

Thousands of passengers were inconvenienced on Friday as Delhi Metro came under “attack” during security drills conducted at four stations in the Capital to check the preparedness of various agencies in case of a terror strike on the facilities.

The mock drills were conducted at Rajouri Garden, Mandi House, Netaji Subhash Place and Dilshad Garden stations and passengers from these stations were evacuated as part of the drills, putting the services to a standstill for 20 minutes.

Different scenarios like serial bomb blast, explosives laden truck hitting a Metro pillar, powerful bomb blast near ticket counter and explosion triggered by a human bomb were enacted as part of the drill to evaluate the response of security agencies.

The mock drills were supervised by officials from Delhi Disaster Management Authority. Bomb squads and sniffer dogs were also used in the drills.

Though some passengers knew about the drills, majority of them had no clue that their journey would take longer time than usual. The drills were conducted from 11.30 am to around 12.00 pm.

“I was travelling from Anand Vihar to Rajiv Chowk at around 11.00 and suddenly there was an announcement on the Metro that services would be disrupted due to mock drills,” Rajiv Gupta, a media professional, said.

He also said there should have been “proper advertisements” in newspapers about the drills so that people could have planned their travel accordingly.

Though there were constant announcements on the Metro trains about the mock drills, it was of no use as the trains came to a halt at various stations.

Metro officials admitted that the drills did cause disruption in services and said it lasted for about 20 minutes.

They said the aim of the drill was to check the preparedness of the DMRC staff and the security agencies in case of a terrorist attack.

More than 15 mock drills have been conducted at various Metro stations in the last five years in which scenarios such as terrorist attacks, evacuation of trains and stations, derailment and fire were created.