New Delhi, Jan 11 (IANS): Delhi Commuters had their patience tested for a second time on Wednesday when the Metro's Blue Line developed another snag, which slowed the trains considerably and caused grave inconvenience to passengers.
The snag occurred on the Blue Line (Dwarka Sector 21-Noida City Centre and Vaishali) at 5.14 p.m. when the trains plying on this route stopped flashing their 'Identification number', which is displayed on the front glass pane of each Metro and with which the Operations Control Centre (OCC) locates the trains and controls their speed and movement.
The fault led the OCC to start allocating fresh IDs to the trains plying on the route, which led to bunching of trains and became the cause of delay during the peak traffic period.
In the meantime, the Metro drivers resorted to communicate with the control centre manually to tell them their locations and waited for signals to move.
"Many trains have been allocated fresh IDs and the process is still going on. The bunching up of trains will take some time to be normal," a Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) official told IANS.
It was on the same stretch where another technical snag had thrown the Metro routine out of gear on Wednesday morning.
The snag, which occurred around 9 a.m., coincided with the peak hours when most people use the Delhi Metro to reach their work places. Office-goers faced a tough time commuting when they were met with more massively crowded trains than usual.
The Track Circuit (TC) was made normal at 12.10 p.m. and the bunching effect was done away with thereafter.
This stretch, which is majorly elevated, is also the most prone to snags and failures, with at least three such incidents happening in the last 15 days and leading to severe inconvenience to passengers.
Being exposed to all kinds of vagaries of weather, including heat, cold and rain, owing to its elevated structure, the Blue Line is more vulnerable to technical disruptions, Metro officials say.
Although the DMRC is coming up with two more Metro lines (Pink and Magenta), which are expected to take some load off the Blue Line, these are not likely to be commissioned for at least 6-8 more months.