Metro Rail stops on tracks for half an hour

Stranded passengers at the Lakdikapul metro station on Thursday evening, after a train (in the picture) developed a snag and stopped midway. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Scores of passengers spent some anxious moments in the city on Thursday when the metro train with them aboard stopped midway and refused to move for over half an hour. The train on the L.B.Nagar-Miyapur corridor came to an abrupt halt with sudden brake, a little short of reaching Lakdikapul station at around 5.15 p.m.

Despite several attempts by the Hyderabad Metro Rail drivers and the staff aboard, the train did not move even an inch. “I got in at Dilsukhnagar, and was to get down at Lakdikapul station, but spent more time than the usual journey time, waiting on the tracks just a few yards from my destination,” said Shubham Agarwal, a passenger.

While several passengers got used to abrupt brakes between the stations most often due to the emergency button getting pressed by mistake, the train usually moves in seconds.

“During the last four years of regular commuting, I have never experienced a halt this long. They should check the trains thoroughly before plying them,” said Srinivasa Rao, another commuter.

Several passengers got restless after a while and started banging the doors of the drivers’ cabin, to know what went wrong. Panic prevailed for a few moments when air-conditioning stopped.

Finally, at about 5.50 p.m., the train slowly chugged into the Lakdikapul station, where all the passengers were de-boarded. Enquiries with the staff revealed that the train had some snag due to which it could not travel any further.

The incident had a cascading effect, in that commuters piled up at all the stations behind and ahead of the defunct train. Several trains were cancelled for more than an hour on the route, and passengers were returned from the ticket counters for at least half an hour after the train reached Lakdikapul.

HMRL officials, on the condition of anonymity, attributed the snag to emergency brake issue — either due to someone pressing the emergency button, or due to some technical glitch.

“These are sensitive sophisticated systems vulnerable to pollution and this has been the prime cause for malfunctions many a time,” said a senior official.