Delhi Metro: When an eagle left thousands stranded

Evening rush-hour services on Delhi Metro's Blue Line were severely affected today as a portion of the overhead wiring of the network sagged after being hit by an eagle, which also triggered a short circuit.

As trains ran on a single line between Indraprastha and Yamuna Bank stations, for nearly three hours, the crowd swelled across stations of the busy corridor that connects Noida City Centre and Vaishali to west Delhi's Dwarka.

The incident happened around 4.55 pm, minutes before evening peak period, which sees thousands of home-bound commuters taking the rapid transit as office hours get over around this time.

Necessary repair work, through regulation of train movement, was completed by 7.40 pm, a Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) official said.

"An eagle hit led to a short circuit of insulator resulting in sagging of catenary wire. The insulator flashed and broke. It caused OHE entanglement with a train passing under it.

"Consequently, train movement was regulated on this line. Trains were run on a single line, alternatively in either direction, and repair work was carried out. The snag had hit the down line (that goes towards Noida/Vaishali)," the official said.

The over 50-km-long Blue Line, DMRC's longest corridor as of now, is extremely snag-prone due to a host of factors including its vulnerability to external factors as it is largely overground.

DMRC's network currently spans around 213 km and it carries an average of 30 lakh passengers daily, with Blue Line being one of the busiest.