A fresh technical glitch crippled services on the Blue Line Metro for three hours on Saturday, disrupting commutes across the north-south corridor.
The glitch was reported around 12.50pm, when a fault was detected in the automated display panel at Dum Dum station. Full services resumed after 3.45pm, said a Metro
official.
With the panel malfunctioning, Metro authorities had to switch to manual mode, which significantly slowed down operations. Trains were either stalled or moved at irregular intervals across the corridor, stretching from Dakshineswar in the north to Shahid Khudiram (Briji) in the south.
The Dakshineswar to Girish Park stretch — at the northern end of the corridor — was the worst affected. To manage the situation, some trains were made to switch direction from Girish Park, one of the non-terminal stations equipped with such reversal provisions.
Commuters stranded
Passengers across the network faced long delays and confusion. Bidisha Karmakar, 22, who boarded a Dakshineswar-bound train from Kudghat around 1.15pm, said it took her two hours to reach Noapara, double the usual time.
She had to get off twice and described long halts at several stations. “At Tollygunge, there was an announcement asking us to switch platforms and board another train. The train halted at almost every station for 5-10 minutes. At Girish Park, the train was stuck for almost 15 minutes. I finally reached Noapara around 3.50pm for my dance class,” she said.
Trains were overcrowded, and at several stations, doors failed to close because of the rush. The scale could have been bigger had it been a weekday.
Even after services resumed, delays and bunching of trains — when multiple trains arrive close together instead of at regular intervals — continued through the afternoon, said a Metro spokesperson.
“There was bunching and reversal of trains at Girish Park. Normal services resumed from 3.45pm,” the spokesperson said.
Rebuild plan
Metro authorities are preparing for the reconstruction at Kavi Subhash (New Garia) station, the southern terminal of the Blue Line, where commercial operations were suspended from July 28 due to cracks in platform pillars.
Subhransu Sekhar Mishra, the new general manager of Metro Railway, said on Saturday that the demolition and rebuilding of the affected platform should begin soon. “The work should start within a fortnight. Six to seven months will be needed to complete it,” he said.
The platform for Dakshineswar-bound trains will be pulled down and rebuilt. The contract has already been awarded, a Metro official said.
Currently, empty trains are switching tracks at New Garia, but not at the usual spot. The detour adds more than five minutes to turnaround time, creating a cascading effect on the entire Blue Line, which has already been stretched by increased passenger flow from the newly commissioned East-West Metro (Green Line). The two corridors intersect at Esplanade.
To ease pressure in the interim, Metro is building a temporary rake reversal point at Shahid Khudiram. “Installation will take two to three days and will be completed before the Kavi Subhash rebuild starts,” Mishra added.