Delhi Metro's strange Christmas 'gift' to commuters

NEW DELHI: Metro commuters in the capital on Sunday had a harrowing time for Christmas when they were left stranded on its Blue Line, with hundreds of them waiting at a single station for about 40 minutes. Despite the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation's (DMRC's) intimation that there will be "slight" inconvenience in the Metro services on December 25, the commuters were not quite prepared for the travails which they faced while going to offices, or meeting friends on the holiday. "Let's get down here, we can take an auto or something to reach Jantar Mantar," a group of friends was heard saying at the Ramakrishna Asharam Marg Station where the train remained stood for over half an hour. A couple deboarded the train at the same station for fresh air, since the prolonged delay caused the train to be filled to the rafters, many thought it better to wait outside the coach than inside. Scores of others followed suit. They deboarded the train at the RK Ashram Marg Station, choosing to go with some other mode of transport. The travails of the passengers were not limited to the inside of the train. One was faced with an extended line at the token counter -- a fallout of returning passengers who had gone out and returned to the station after a slight breather. Ill-managed planning added to the pains of the passengers when the train which were supposed to go till Indraprastha stranded passengers at Barakhamba Station, asking everyone to disembark. "It took me three hours to reach here from Shadipur Station, which normally takes not more than half an hour," Alisha, a psychologist at Apollo Hospital, told IANS. Another man who was due to send 'prasad' to his home-state expressed his dismay when he was forced to deboard at the Barakhamba Station. "This had happened last week too. I need to send the prasad (holy offering) to my hometown Guntur in Andhra Pradesh, how will I able to do that in time as my deliverer is due to leave soon," Gopikrishna, a devotee at Ayyappa temple in RK Puram, said to IANS. Sunil Sehgal, who owns a shop in Sadar Bazaar, said that he had to let go of five Metro trains at RK Ashram before he boarded one, only to deboard that two stations later. The DMRC had issued an advisory on Friday that Metro services will be affected slightly owing to track maintenance work between Indraprastha and Yamuna Bank Stations, between 12 to 3 p.m.