Cable snag causes discomfort to thousands of Delhi metro commuters

On Wednesday evening, metro commuters in Delhi had a scare of their life when their 6.44PM train going from Vaishali to Yamuna Bank stopped at about 200m before reaching Laxmi Nagar station. An overhead cable was snapped near this station, due to which the train came to a grinding halt and passengers were stranded on the tracks for more than 30 minutes. To add insult to injury, the Delhi Metro Corporation moved at snail’s pace in rescuing commuters on this fateful train no.28. Commuters who were stuck in the train started feeling suffocating soon after the train halt, because the air conditioning system had failed. Not knowing further course of action and with no help from concerned authorities, some commuters opened the emergency doors, got off on the tracks and started walking to Laxmi Nagar station.

It was only by 8.06pm that the problem got resolved and train services started getting normal. When contacted by the media, officials of Delhi Metro stated that they did make announcements that the train would be moved soon and asked passengers not to get off, but by then they had opened the emergency doors. Distraught commuters, however, insist that they couldn’t hear any such announcements. The commotion lasted for a good one hour, which led to absolute pandemonium in the Dwarka Sector 21 – Vaishali corridor. This technical snag delayed subsequent trains as well and the impact was so huge that metro commuters could feel the abnormality of services until the late hours of night. Now, with the snag corrected, the Delhi metro is up and running smoothly, as it usually does.