COVID: Red Line, Violet Line, Green Line resume services after 172 days

New Delhi, September 10

Delhi Metro's Red Line, Violet Line and Green Line resumed services on Thursday after being closed for 172 days due to the COVID-19 pandemic, officials said.

Yellow Line and Rapid Metro were the first to reopen on Monday, followed by Blue Line and Pink Line on Wednesday.

"Seven lines of the Delhi Metro network are now open! Thank you dear commuters for following the safety guidelines and helping us maintain good service. #MetroBackOnTrack," the DMRC tweeted after the three new lines resumed services.

Services on Red Line, Violet Line and Green Line resumed at 7 AM, officials said.

On Monday, the Delhi Metro resumed partial services on the Yellow Line.

The Delhi Metro services were suspended on March 22.

The Ministry of Home Affairs recently issued guidelines allowing the Delhi Metro to resume operations in a graded manner, following which the DMRC said it would be done in three stages from September 7-12.

Under stage one, Yellow Line or Line 2 and Rapid Metro were made operational with restricted service hours. Trains are operating in batches of four hours each from 7-11 AM and 4-8 PM.

On Wednesday, Blue Line and Pink Line were made operational with the same schedule.

Red Line (Rithala to Shaheed Sthal New Bus Adda, Ghaziabad); Green Line (Kirti Nagar/Inderlok to Brig. Hosihar Singh, Bahadurgarh); and Violet Line (Kashmere Gate to Raja Nahar Singh, Ballabhgarh), resumed services on September 10 with the same time schedule, the DMRC said.

With the services available on multiple lines now -- Yellow, Blue and Pink Lines -- the total ridership on Wednesday was nearly 53,400 till 8 PM, the DMRC said in a statement.

The approximate figures for the three corridors were -- Yellow Line (26,900), Blue Line (22,600) and Pink Line (3,900), it said.

“DMRC will be running 35 trains on Red Line (Rithala-Shaheed Sthal New Bus Adda) performing around 413 train trips during morning and evening hours on 10th September 2020. Similarly,  40 trains with approx. 344 trips will be put into service on the Violet Line (Kashmere Gate-Raja Nahar Singh)," the DMRC said on Wednesday.

On the Green Line (Kirtinagar/Inderlok - Brig. Hoshiar Singh), 20 trains with 268 train trips will be put into service, the statement said.

"The trips will be subsequently increased as the operational timing of services get extended on September 11-12 with the opening of other lines in a graded manner," it added.

The list of gates which will remain open for entry of passengers at each station along with all necessary updates are available on the home page of Delhi Metro's official website www.delhimetrorail.com for easy access of the passenger information.

The entire metro network is planned to be made operational for passenger services throughout the day from September 12 onwards as it was before March 22 with all social distancing norms and guidelines to be followed by the passengers during the travel due to the ongoing pandemic.

Wearing masks is mandatory inside train coaches and at station premises.

The DMRC has appealed to people to use the rapid transport only if urgently needed. PTI 

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