The cops lathi charged the SP workers who protested at Lucknow's Transport Nagar Metro station
The technical snag in the Lucknow metro on Wednesday morning that left hundreds of passengers stranded in an non-ventilated coach without food, water and a functioning air conditioner has turned out to be a political war of words between the Samajwadi Party and the Centre-led BJP. While former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and current CM Yogi Adityanath engaged in a war of words on Twitter over the inauguration,
Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav vented his ire against the Centre following the glitch. And while the Centre has not responded, it’ll be a matter of time before this ends up as another war of words between the two political rivals in Uttar Pradesh.
On Tuesday, Home Minister Rajnath Singh flagged off the Lucknow Metro, but it’s the second time that the metro has been inaugurated. Akhilesh, as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, had flagged off the metro in December 2016 and the coaches had travelled half a kilometre as part of a test run.
Following the technical snag, Akhilesh tweeted, “Despite inordinate delay in issuing NOC, Metro came to a halt on the first day itself.”
Akhilesh’s tweet resulted in his supporters holding a dharna at Trasport Nagar Metro Station, forcing the Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation (LMRC) to shut down the station. The police then lathi charged the SP workers.
Earlier on Wednesday, hundreds were stranded inside the Metro for about two hours without water and Air-conditioner, which also failed once it halted. Later, the LMRC engineers rescued stranded passengers by breaking open the emergency gate of the last bogie.
The LMRC Managing Director, a close aide of Metro Man E.Sreedharan, has ordered an inquiry inquiry into the technical snag which jammed the entire system, including the server.
All passengers, including elders and school children, had to walk down for more than 400 metres on the narrow and difficult Metro track to somehow reach the station.
Passengers shared their terrible experience on the Lucknow Metro’s commercial launch. Gaurav Tripathi had to catch a flight for Delhi. He boarded the train at 6.10 am but the train came to a halt at 6.38 am between Mawaiyya and Durgapuri Metro Stations.
“All system like emergency calling system, ACs etc had failed once it came to a sudden stop. For almost two hours we sweat under intense humidity in compact bogies which had no window for emergency ventilation. By the time we were rescued, I had missed my Delhi flight,” Tripathi told media persons.
In return of this two-hour-long ordeal, passengers got ‘sorry’ as the only reply instead of offering them water, breakfast and vehicles to their destinations. “I will file a case against LMRC if they did not pay up my Lucknow-Delhi and back airfare,” warned Tripathi.
Tripti, another passenger, had got up early to board metro for going to her school not knowing what was awaiting her. “I sustained bruises on my knees when fell on the narrow track we were forced to walk on to reach the station,” complained she after missing her school.
The Lucknow Metro PRO Amit Srivastava said it was due to a technical problem which had been fixed. The technical snag led to problem in the LMRC server too invalidating Go Smart Cards of many passengers.
“It was due to problem in the server. The problem has been rectified and passengers would be issued new Go Smart Cards by replacing the invalid ones,” said Kumar Keshav, the Managing Director, LMRC.
The MD who was suppose to hold a press conference Wednesday afternoon to announce successful operation of Lucknow Metro’s commercial run had to show a hasty retreat following major goof-up on the opening day itself.
About Rs 2680 crore have been spent on the first phase of Lucknow Metro covering eight stations between Transport Nagar and Charbagh.
It was flagged off with much fanfare on Tuesday by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh. He also had a joy-ride on the Metro along with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Governor Ram Naik, Modi Cabinet minister of state Hardeep Singh Puri and other dignitaries.
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