The year saw Delhi Metro's image getting eroded as the new age transport system was compared to the rogue Blueline buses due to frequent mishaps and delays.
The good balanced out the bad for Delhi Metro as it went beyond the capital's boundaries this year and reached a ridership of one billion but faced its worst-ever accident and two train derailments.
On November 13, a new chapter was added to Delhi Metro's history when commercial services beyond the boundaries of Delhi started with the opening of the Yamuna Bank-NOIDA City Centre section, a distance of 13.1km.
The year saw Delhi Metro's image getting eroded as the new age transport system was compared to the rogue Blueline buses due to frequent mishaps and delays.
An under-construction bridge collapse in Zamrudpur in south Delhi killing seven persons and forced DMRC chief E Sreedharan to resign "owning moral responsibility" for the incident, but Delhi Government refused to accept it.
The incident severely eroded Metro's image in the country and urban development minister S Jaipal Reddy was forced to make a statement in Parliament twice due to demands from MPs.
DMRC blacklisted Gammon India, the contracting firm responsible for construction, for two years and suspended two deputy engineers, who were responsible for design and material. At least four minor mishaps were reported at under-construction sites after the Zamrudpur incident.
The year also saw the number of commuters taking the Metro reaching one billion. DMRC also recorded its highest-ever single-day ridership of 10.29 lakh on November 24.
Less than a month after the Zamrudpur incident, a train derailed in Dwarka, but no one was injured. However, the incident raised serious questions over the safety of Metro, prompting the DMRC to order an high-level inquiry.
Before the inquiry report could come, another train derailed near the Yamuna Bridge in east Delhi. This forced the DMRC Board to tell the management to take steps to prevent such incidents in the future.
Passengers were put to severe inconvenience due to inordinate delays in Metro trains and hundreds of passengers got stranded inside trains for two hours when they stopped on tracks abruptly.
Passengers on the Noida line, which brought smiles to thousands of commuters in the satellite city, also complained that trains on the line get delayed every day and the frequency was also less.
2009 saw 21.56km being added to the Metro network as part of Phase-II.
While the 6.36km Vishwavidyalaya-Jahangirpuri section opened to the public on February 4, services on the 2.1km Indraprastha-Yamuna Bank section started on May 10.
Delhi Metro also added 13 trains to its stable in the year, with the number increasing from 70 to 83.
Trains were brought in by aircraft and ships from Germany and South Korea so that they could be inducted into service as soon as possible.
The year also bought to the fore the environmental and social benefits of Delhi Metro, with a study by the Central Road Research Organisation stating that these benefits will help recover the full cost of Phase-I (Rs10,571 crore) by December 2011.
The year 2010 will be very critical for DMRC as new sections are set to be opened almost every month and the operational network will double in a span of less than a year.
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