New Delhi: Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) resumed services on the Magenta and Grey lines on Friday under Stage-II of restarting its operations with all COVID-19 protocols in place.
Talking to ANI, Jitendra Mani, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Delhi Metro said ensuring COVID-19 norms is the prime concerns of the department at the moment. "Ensuring social distancing and use of face marks are our main concern. Most people are following the norms themselves and violations are not noticed often," he said.
Passengers at Hauz Khas Metro station said they are happy that now Delhi metro is operational, they are taking all the precautions and their life has become easier. "We were taking shared cabs. Now with metro our lives are a bit easier," said a passenger Aan Singh at Hauz Khas Metro station.
Another passenger Deepak Kumar added that it is good that Metro has resumed the services as busses were not taking more than 20 passengers and people were getting delayed in their commute. "The safety precautions taken by DMRC are also very good," added Kumar.
The metro on Magenta Line will be running from Janakpuri West in Delhi to Botanical Garden in Noida. The Grey Line will operate between Dwarka and Najafgarh in Delhi. "With the people of Delhi NCR efficiently following our safety guidelines, we have successfully begun operations on the Magenta and Grey lines today. Take precautions and travel safe!" tweeted DMRC.
Under stage-I, DMRC resumed services on the Red Line, Green Line and Violet Line on Thursday, while the Blue and Pink Line were re-started on Wednesday. The services of Yellow Line connecting Samaypur Badli to Huda City Centre and Rapid Metro in Gurugram were resumed September 7 as part of Unlock 4.
Metro lines re-opened till September 11, under both stage-I and stage-II will be operational for six hours each in the morning (from 7 am to 1 pm) and evening (4.00 pm to 10.00 pm), with broadly the same frequency, which used to be before lockdown. Starting from September 20, Metro will commence its Sunday services from 8 am, as practised before COVID-19 lockdown. However, on the coming Sunday (September 13), the services on all lines will commence at 6 am as per the existing schedule.
Thus, all lines of the Delhi Metro network comprising 349 kilometre of distance and 253 Metro stations will be fully operational once again from September 12, which were closed since March 22, owing to the national lockdown imposed by the government due to the ongoing pandemic.
