Software glitch hits Metro hard

Thousands of commuters left stranded for hours

Technical snag is becoming a buzzword with Delhi Metro commuters; not one they are particularly fond of. Thousands of passengers had a harrowing time on Tuesday due to software malfunctioning on Dwarka- Noida/Anand Vihar Metro Line. So far, the line has seen the biggest crowds, registering an average ridership of 6 lakh on weekdays.

Train services were affected due to intermittent automatic train supervision (ATS) server failure, resulting in the problem of identification of trains, which are monitored through computers. "Once the train identification numbers are lost, the trains will not be able to move. And this resulted in bunching of trains. The problem was rectified after sometime and services on the line resumed," a DMRC spokesman said.

The glitch was reported at 11:42 am Delhi Metro said and was rectified by 12.35 PM. However, passengers complained that trains were running slow till late evening.

Shikha Singh, a resident of Netaji Subhash Place, who works with an advertising firm said: "We heard the problem was prevalent since morning. But it's very chaotic now. It took me almost one more hour than usual.u00a0 I started my journey at 5 pm from Noida and its 7 pm and I am still travelling. Nowadays the problem is occurring very often,"

Anther commuter, Kshitij Sharma, a web designer who lives in Chandni Chowk, said: "I do not know what the problem was but there were frequent announcements of delays. They were not even mentioning when the problem will be rectified." During this period, trains between Moti Nagar and RK Ashram were run at a restricted speed.

The major problem occurred due to bunching of trains resulting in thousands of passengers remaining stranded at different Metro stations and trains across the network. The chaos continued throughout the afternoon and persisted till evening.