Services on Blue Line affected for over 2 hours, commuters face hardship

Delhi Metro commuters, largely office-goers, on Thursday faced hardship, as services on its Blue Line were delayed for over two hours due to a technical snag.

Blue Line connects Dwarka Sector-21 in Delhi and Noida Electronic City, along with a branch line to Vaishali.

This is the second time this week when the entire Blue Line was impacted by a glitch.

On June 6, a large number of commuters on the Blue Line had to experience similar problem as services across the corridor were impacted for nearly an hour and a half due to a technical snag caused after a 'bird hit'.

On Thursday at 7.25 am, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) tweeted, alerting commuters, "Blue Line Update Delay in services between Dwarka Sector 21 and Noida Electronic City/Vaishali. Normal service on all other lines."

The normal services could only be resumed after over two hours on the corridor.

"There has been damage to the Over Head Electrification wire due to flash over by an external object between Yamuna Bank and Indraprastha. Repair work is being done on a war footing. Update on restoration shall be provided soon. The inconvenience is regretted," DMRC tweeted explaining the cause of the snag.

At 9.43 am it posted, "normal services have resumed".

Due to the services being impacted in the morning rush hour, a majority of the affected commuters were office-goers or businesspersons who were on their way to Connaught Place or other commercial hubs located near the Blue Line network.

Several of them took to Twitter to share the problem they faced with some even tagging Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Puri and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for the effective redressal of this repeated issue.

"Another day but the same news... don't tell us about the hindrance. Inform this to our offices that won't understand the issues we're facing due to the repeated delayed service of blue line," wrote a commuter and Twitter user @_monukumar.

Another commuter, @vikek2020 tweeted, "@Secretary_MoHUA @HardeepSPuri @ArvindKejriwal please take suitable action. People are still recovering from the pandemic and such situations decrease the productivity of office goers".

Other commuters asked why was the issue getting repeated on the Blue Line in just a matter of few days.

"What is the exact issue? And why can't it be resolved despite repetitive occurence?," tweeted @MuskanBhatia18.

Due to being stuck mid-way, one commuter also complained of having missed a job interview opportunity.

"Had interview today at 10:00 am in Noida, just got a bus from rajeev chowk that to for anand vihar. Will not be able to make it to the interview," wrote @mishrarohit1820.