New Delhi:
Services on the Delhi Metro‘s Red, Violet and Green lines are set to resume on Thursday, officials said, after remaining suspended for over five months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Delhi Metro opened its doors to commuters on Monday with curtailed operation of the Yellow Line. Metro services in Delhi-NCR were closed since March 22.
The Ministry of Home Affairs had recently issued guidelines allowing the Delhi Metro to resume operations in a graded manner, following which the DMRC had said it would be done in three stages from September 7-12. As part of stage one, the Yellow Line or Line 2 and Rapid Metro were made operational with restricted service hours. Trains are operating in two batches — from 7-11 AM and 4-8 PM — in the first stage.
On Wednesday, the Blue and Pink lines were made operational with the same schedule. The Red Line (Rithala to Shaheed Sthal New Bus Adda (Ghaziabad); Green Line (Kirti Nagar/Inderlok to Brig. Hosihar Singh); and Violet Line (Kashmere Gate to Raja Nahar Singh) will resume services from September 10 with the same time schedule, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) said on Wednesday.
With services available on multiple lines (Yellow, Blue and Pink Lines), the total ridership on Wednesday was nearly 53,400 till 8 PM, the DMRC said in a statement. The Yellow Line saw an approximate ridership of 26,900, the Blue Line 22,600 and the Pink Line 3,900, it said.
The DMRC said it “will be running 35 trains on the Red Line performing around 413 train trips during morning and evening hours on 10th September, 2020”. “Similarly, 40 trains with approximately 344 trips will be put into service on the Violet Line,” it said. On the Green Line, 20 trains with 268 trips will be put into service, it added.
“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,” the DMRC said. 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 the Delhi Metro’s official website, www.delhimetrorail.com.
The entire metro network will be made operational throughout the day from September 12 onwards. Passengers will be required to follow all social distancing norms and guidelines during travel. Wearing masks is mandatory inside train coaches and on station premises.
The DMRC has appealed to people to use the rapid transport only if urgently needed..
