Few autos, no cabs after snag
look for other modes of tansportation. It took me a extra two hours to reach my destination,” said Sajal Sehgal, a commuter who was travelling to Sultanpur from HUDA City Centre on Sunday around 10 am.
Huge crowds were spotted outside Chhatarpur, HUDA City Centre, IFFCO Chowk and MG Road stations. Metro authorities shut down entry gates at Huda City Centre and Iffco Chowk.
Some claimed it was a “stampede-like situation” at Chhatarpur station. “Stampede waiting to happen at Chattarpur metro station.@delhimetro_ is there any plan to handle such crowds on holidays?,” Anisha Dhawan, a commuter tweeted.
The DMRC in a statement said that repairing the snag took time because the maintenance team had to do physical identification of the exact location of the defective overhead wire. “This was done by walking on foot in the section. Once the affected location was identified aroundnoon, repair work was carried out within 15 minutes and OHE supply restored at 12:15pm,” the DMRC said in a statement.
Explaining the snag, DMRC spokesperson Anuj Dayal said the issue involved breaking of a copper split pin inserted in the insulator meant to support return current wire. “We have launched a drive to replace all copper pins of these insulators, Dayal said. NEW DELHI: Sunday was a tough day to travel for residents of DelHI-NCR who didn’t use private vehicles. Auto-rickshaws in the national capital were scant and app-based cabs had disappeared owing to Raksha Bandhan celebrations.
The Yellow Line of the Delhi Metro came to a halt for more than three hours due to a technical snag, causing massive traffic snarls on areas like MG road.
A number of commuters took to Twitter to vent their anger and alert fellow travellers about the snag. “Horrendous traffic on MG Road - Gurgaon to Delhi. It’s taken us an hour from the border to Zorba. Pls plan your trip accordingly,” said one Neha Raghavan, on Twitter.
The Delhi traffic police said vehicular flow was heavy on Mehrauli-gurgaon Road due to interruption in Metro service at Qutub Minar station. “Large number of people gathered at the Metro station which obstructed traffic flow.,” a police officer said.
Operations of state-run buses were reported to be normal.
However, a lot of people faced major problems in finding autorickshaws on Sunday. In most cases, auto rickshaw drivers were fleecing commuters and refused to go by the meter. “I paid ₹270 for an auto ride from New Delhi railway station to CR Park. The usual rate is ₹120 by meter and ₹150 otherwise,” said Prashanti Singh, an IT professional.
Auto-rickshaw unions attributed the spike in fares to the fact that many drivers were off duty on Sunday for Raksha Bandhan.
Those who wanted to take cabs fared no better with app-based cab aggregators imposing heavy surge pricing. “From KG Marg to Vasundhara in Ghaziabad, Uber prices were ₹589 and Ola prices were ₹530. The share prices were also unusually high, hovering around ₹365. I was forced to take the Metro,” said Ankita Kumar, a resident of Ghaziabad.
Ola said the surge pricing was necessary due to “high demand”. “The demand was high because of Raksha Bandhan. However, total pricing charged is as per government mandate,” an Ola spokesperson said. Uber had not responsed till the time this report was filed.