Tech glitches cripple Delhi Metro

New Delhi: Mounting the woes of the people already battling waterlogging and traffic congestion in the city due to rains, technical glitches crippled Metro services twice during the day. Trains on the Violet Line crawled during the morning rush hours due to a major signal failure, while services on Blue Line remained affected for over two hours due to flashing of the OHE (overhead wire) near the Karol Bagh station at around 2.40 pm.

A Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) official said services slowed down at around 8 am along the entire Violet Line, stretching between Faridabad and Kashmere Gate, after trains lost touch with the control centre.

As the centralised control mechanism snapped, trains had to be manually controlled from each station on this section between 8 am and 9 am, leading to long delays. “The issue was resolved at 9 am and trains are now being regulated as per normal schedule on Line-6,” the official said.

Later in the day, it was the turn of Blue Line, the Metro’s longest and busiest corridor, which connects Noida and East Delhi’s Vaishali to West Delhi’s Dwarka.

“Services on this line were affected between 2.40 pm and 4.13 pm due to point flashing — a signalling issue in which trains don’t attain normal speed and have to cross the point area with restricted speed as a safety measure. This led to bunching of trains during this period,” an official said.

Earlier this year, following sudden power failures and the resulting loss of contact of trains with the control centre, services were crippled on the Blue Line for two successive days.

The Operational Control Centre is considered the nerve-centre of the metro network, and following the incident; the alternative mechanism of station-level handling was activated.

Earlier in May, a similar technical snag had hit Delhi Metro services bet-ween two stations on the Yellow Line (Samaypur Badli-Huda City Centre) and Metro service was affected for more than four hours.