Commuters travelling on the Mumbai Metro on its Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar line had to face Monday blues with a delay of 15 minutes, as the Metro services were disrupted. An obstruction on the overhead wire (OHE) at Saki Naka Metro station during the early morning peak hours had caused the disturbance.
However, this is the second time in the past 20 days and the fifth time this year that Metro services were disrupted. On November 30, services came to a halt near the Airport Road Metro station during the early morning peak hours.
Soon after the incident commuters took to social media. On Twitter, Nikhil Chaudhari @imbevda tweeted, “Power supply issue near in Mumbai Metro near Saki Naka apparently. More delay both ways expected! 10+ minutes metro stalled.” The official Twitter account of Mumbai Metro @MumbaiMetro replied to the Twitterati, “Because of obstruction on the overhead wire, Metro services were stopped proactively to avoid any unforeseen incident. Obstruction has been removed and services resumed to normalcy. Inconvenience regretted.”
In May 2015, the signalling system of the Metro developed some technical snag and operations came to a halt. On the same line in March 2015, the power supply for the Versova Car Depot Traction Sub Station tripped, resulting in a technical snag.
On Monday, MMOPL spokesperson issued a statement, saying, “Mumbai Metro One services were halted for about 15 minutes around 10 am on Monday morning as an obstruction was observed on the overhead wire near the Saki Naka Metro station. The obstruction was removed and normal services resumed thereafter.”
However, when this newspaper questioned the spokesperson of the MMOPL on the steps MMOPL are going to take to ensure that such incidents, which are occurring frequently, do not repeat, it did not get any reply.
Meanwhile, sources revealed. “It was a thread-like object that was spotted on the OHE which was observed by the pilot of the Metro, which resulted in shutting the power supply on the OHE.”
