Delhi Metro Services resume on Blue and Pink Lines today
Delhi Metro News: Trains started running on the Blue and Pink Lines with limited operations on Wednesday. Blue and Pink Lines were closed for nearly six months due to the coronavirus-forced lockdown. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) this morning tweeted: "The Blue and Pink lines resumed services today. Slowly and steadily, Delhi Metro will be back to take you places! #MetroBackOnTrack". The Delhi Metro Blue Line includes 50 stations from Dwarka Sector 21 to Noida Electronic City, (Line 3), and a branch line consisting of eight stations from Vaishali to Yamuna Bank, (Line 4). The Pink Line has 38 metro stations from Majlis Park to Shiv Vihar, both in North Delhi.
DMRC also posted the schedule of the graded resumption of services.
"It is a good thing that Metro service has resumed. All precautionary measures are being taken by DMRC. It will be better if service hours are extended," a commuter told news agency ANI. Another traveller said, "It's a good decision to resume Metro services; COVID-19 norms are being followed so it feels safe to travel."
The trains will run in four-hour batches between 7-11 am and 4-8 pm in the first phase. On Monday, the Delhi Metro had resumed limited services on the Yellow Line, first time since March 22.
The Ministry of Home Affairs had recently issued guidelines allowing the Delhi Metro to resume operations in a graded manner. The DMRC had said, services will resume in three stages from September 7-12.
Under stage one, Yellow Line and Rapid Metro were made operational with restricted hours - 7-11 am and 4-8 pm. Around 15,500 passengers travelled on the Yellow Line and Rapid Metro on Monday and the footfalls rose to nearly 17,600 on Tuesday.
The DMRC has appealed to people to strictly follow guidelines and use the rapid transport only if necessary.
(Inputs from ANI & PTI)