Delhi Metro Services Halted for 15 Minutes as North India Shook by Massive Earthquake

Passengers stranded

On the 26th of October, parts of North India felt tremors, as an after effect of the earthquake that was reportedly triggered in the Hindukush Mountains in Afghanistan. Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir etc. were the areas that felt these tremors. Due to the after-effects of this earthquake in Delhi, metro train services were suspended in the city between 2.40PM and 2.55PM. Due to this sudden change of plan, thousands of passengers were left stranded on the metro stations. When train services resumed after 15 minutes, it still didn’t provide any relief, because trains ran slower than their usual speed limits.

Security measure

While speaking about the halt of train services, a senior official from DMRC (Delhi Metro Rail Corporation) commented that as soon as they got to know about the news of earthquake in North India, they suspended the metro train services in Delhi for a short while as part of normal security measures. They did this so that they could analyse more about derailments or station damages in detail. Once all factors were checked and when everything was found satisfactory, train services were resumed again. Officials from DMRC claimed these kinds of unscheduled stoppages during crisis situations, is part of their standard operating module.

Impact of earthquake

The earthquake, that measured a massive 7.5, killed close to 200 people in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This also triggered the Delhi earthquake and tremors in other parts of North India. Parts of Delhi, Delhi NCR and other parts of North India felt the tremors at around 2.40PM, which made people panic and fear for their lives. The casualty number from this deadly earthquake is set to keep increasing in the coming days, as thousands of people in Pakistan and Afghanistan have been severely injured, partly due to the tremors itself and partly due to the panic and stampeded following the tremors.