Metro services hit for two hours

Tribune News Service

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New Delhi, July 8

The Delhi Metro Rail services were delayed for close to two hours on Wednesday evening when an overhead electrification wire (OHE) snapped due to a possible electrocution of a crow, at a location between the Yamuna Bank and Vaishali Metro stations, forcing passengers of a train to open the emergency doors and come on the tracks.

The passengers coming out on the tracks led to further delay in repairing the wire. The train services were restored from the Yamuna Bank station to the Vaishali station by about 8.06 pm.

The incident took place between the Yamuna Bank and Vaishali stations at about 6.15 pm.

"One of the OHE wires, which provide power to the trains, snapped near the Yamuna Bank Metro station. Therefore, there was a disruption. The fault was fixed at 8.06 pm," said a Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) spokesperson.

On being asked about the cause of the incident, the spokesperson said, "A crow was found electrocuted near the point where the wire had snapped. The electrocution of the bird might have created a spark in the wire, due to which it snapped." 

The spokesperson explained that there are two tracks between the Yamuna Bank and Vaishali stations. One of them moves out from the Yamuna Bank station and heads towards the Vaishali station. The other one is in the opposite direction, coming from the Vaishali station and going towards the Yamuna Bank station. The wire had snapped on one of the two tracks. When an OHE wire snaps, the trains plying on that track become immobile. The other unaffected track was operational. 

"The trains were plying between the Yamuna Bank and Vaishali stations on this track, but they were delayed. They were moving slowly or getting stuck at stations for long periods, because of the repair work," said the spokesperson. 

The spokesperson added that such technical problems are fixed quickly, but what happened in this incident was that hundreds of passengers of a train, (one train can carry about 1,000 people) which was stuck near the Yamuna Bank station, opened the emergency doors and came out on the tracks near Laxmi Nagar.

"They had to be evacuated and only after that could we could start the restoration work. That is why it took a bit more time," said the spokesperson.