Metro shut over 50 stations, traffic crawled as protest began spreading

DMRC CLOSED TWO OF ITS CORRIDORS AND SHUT DOWN MORE THAN 50 STATIONS AT VARIOUS INTERVALS

NEW DELHI: Commuters in the Capital either had to take long diversions or were left stranded across several parts of the national capital on Tuesday as a rally by farmers did not stick to its prescribed route and descended into violence, leading to multiple road blockades and restrictions in Metro services.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) closed two of its corridors and shut down more than 50 stations on its network at various intervals. Services on most of these stations resumed after a nearly five-hour stoppage. Vehicles, meanwhile, crawled for most part of the day with Delhi traffic police blocking roads all of a sudden as the protests started spreading.

Delhi Traffic Police officials said that the force was caught off-guard after the farmers’ rally began earlier than the scheduled time of 11am from the Singhu and Ghazipur borders.

Officials said while several roads around outer, central, south, south-west and east Delhi had to be blocked at different times of the day because of the situation, there was minimum spillover -- helped by the fact that there were fewer vehicles because of Republic Day holiday.

“We have a team of around 5,000 officials in the traffic department and a section of them were assigned to manage traffic diversions for Republic Day parade. Though we were prepared, the problem arose because protesters did not stick to the approved route and they started coming onto the arterial roads,” said a senior traffic officer on Tuesday, asking not to be named because he is not authorised to speak to the media.

Other officers said that roads around Meerut Expressway, Akshardham temple, Pragati Maidan, Vikas Marg, ITO, Mandi House, India Gate, Mukarba Chowk, Outer Ring Road, Delhi-noida Link Road, Ghazipur border, Singhu border, and Chilla border were closed for general traffic as the rally turned violent.

“Traffic is very heavy on GTK road, Outer Ring Road, Badli road, KN Katju Marg, Madhuban Chowk, Kanjhawala road, Palla road, Narela and DSIIDC Narela roads. Please avoid these roads,” the traffic police’s official handle tweeted at 5.04pm.

In another tweet, at 5.06, it said, “Traffic is very heavy on Wazirabad road, ISBT road, GT road, Pushta road, Vikas marg, NH-24, Road no. 57, Noida link road. Please avoid these roads.”

Stretches near Lajpat Nagar, Safdarjung Hospital, Delhi-noida-direct Flyway and the Ring Road near All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) were also restricted for traffic movement at different times of the day. The traffic police, however, said that these restrictions were “minor” and need-based.

Meanwhile, DMRC closed its Green Line (Inderlok to Mundka) around 10.10 am as tension escalated on Tikri border and later shut operations on its Grey Line (Dwarka to Najafgarh). While the services on Grey line, which was closed for commuters around 3.20pm, resumed after two hours, DMRC decided to keep all stations closed on Green Line for the entire day. Later in the day, DMRC was also forced to shut 11 stations on the Yellow line (Samaypur Badli-huda city centre), for commuters for nearly six hours, starting 12.46pm. In less than an hour after resuming services on this section around 5.26 pm, DMRC again closed services at Azadpur, Rohini Sector 18, Vidhan Sabha, Model Town, Samaypur Badli along with Kashmere Gate.

A Metro official said interchange facility was available. “The stations were closed following instructions from the Delhi Police,” the official said.

Sudhir Kumar, a resident of Gurugram, was stuck at Kashmere Gate due to the protest. “I was to visit my family in Rohini. But as the entire section from Kashmere Gate to Rohini sector 18 was closed, I decided to come back to my home. I had almost reached AIIMS which I got to know about the section being closed.”