IMD warning: Delhi Metro to exercise caution in train operation

The Delhi Metro has decided to exercise extreme caution in running trains in the wake of the meteorological department's warning about heavy rains and thunderstorm.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) operates trains in the national capital and the NCR, and its current operational network is over 252 km.

"If the wind speed is reported in the range of 70-90 kmph then train movement will remain normal, but trains will enter with a restricted speed of 40 kmph or less, at platforms on elevated sections of the network.

"If the wind speed is reported above 90 kmph then trains will be put on hold at platforms and no train will enter platforms with a speed of more than 15 kmph," a senior DMRC official told PTI.

In this case, normal movement of trains will be restored once the wind speed is reported at less then 85 kmph for a continous period of five minutes. Appropriate announcements will be made at stations during this period, he said.

According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), thunderstorms and gusty winds are likely to occur at isolated places over Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and western Uttar Pradesh today and tomorrow.

At least 124 people were killed and more than 300 others injured in five states in dust storms, thunderstorms and lightnings last week.

The Delhi Metro network spans some of the most densly-populated areas of the national capital such as Old Delhi and far-off places in the National Capital Region (NCR) such as Faridabad and Gurgaon.

At present, the average ridership of Delhi metro is 28 lakh per day, which is further expected to increase up to 40 lakh per day after completion of the DMRC's Phase-III, according to the Economic Survey of Delhi 2017-18.

With the opening of the Pink Line's Majlis Park-Durgabai Deshmukh South Campus corridor of the DMRC in March, the operational length of the network had crossed 250 km.

The corridor, part of the 59 km-long Majlis ParkShiv Vihar corridor (Pink LineLine 7) of Delhi Metro's Phase-III, has 12 stations.

All the stations have platform-screen doors. Out of the 12 stations, eight are elevated and rest underground.