A harrowing Tuesday for 1,791 Metro commuters

It was a terrible Tuesday morning for thousands of commuters on the Delhi Metro as a train on the yellow line got stranded inside a tunnel for over one-and-a-half hours during the peak hours. The incident took place between the Central Secretariat and Udyog Bhawan metro stations on the busy Jahangirpuri–Huda City Centre metro line when an eight-coach train came to an abrupt halt following a technical snag.

According to Delhi Metro, the disruption occurred around 9.24 am when a train heading to HUDA City Centre developed a fault and stopped between Central Secretariat and Udyog Bhawan stations.

“Around 9.50 am passengers from the stranded train pushed open the emergency door of the train on their own and came on to the track towards Central Secretariat. Some passengers also entered the adjacent track which was meant for the movement of passengers travelling from Huda City Centre towards Jahagirpuri. The DMRC had ordered stoppage of trains on this track also as a precautionary measure before starting the rescue operation,” said a DMRC spokesperson.

As passengers were on the track, DMRC operational staff abandoned the plan to use another train to push the stranded train to the next station since this would have endangered public moving on the tracks.

“From 9.50 am to 10.45 am, a total of about 1,791 passengers were evacuated from the stranded train and track clearance was given. Preliminary investigation by the engineers revealed that an emergency brake was being pulled automatically which resulted in such snag. A high-level inquiry committee has been formed to look into why the train developed a technical snag. The train was taken to a near depot for repair and maintenance,” said DMRC officials.

Technical experts said that due to ‘brake binding’ technical snag might have occurred. “‘Brake binding’ means that the brakes of the train often get stuck due to poor maintenance and it does not get released soon. As a result of the abrasion between the wheels and the brake, the car cannot move and that produces spark, smoke emission, resulting in train stall,” experts said.

They said brake failure in train is the most common cause of technical snag. It might be that due to automatic functioning, an emergency brake was applied and as it could not be released, and thus bringing the train to an abrupt halt, experts maintained.

As passengers’ rush exceeded, two short loop services were started between Green Park to Huda City Centre and Central Secretariat to Jahangirpuri. To clear the rush at Rajiv Chowk and Kashmere Gate stations, two trains were also sent from Vishwavidyalaya to these stations at 11 am.

DMRC managing director Mangu Singh has appointed a three-member committee to inquire into the causes of the failure.