Namma Metro's Purple Line suffers snag, commuters panic

BENGALURU: On the day Namma Metro commenced its additional trips on both -Green and Purple line during peak hours, hundreds of passengers on the Purple line were trapped due to a power outage that lasted for 26 minutes between 10.02 am and 10.28 am. 

Passengers were stuck in trains which did not move for more than 10 minutes. While some ignored the glitch, the ones who were stuck in underground stations  panicked as many reported feeling suffocated. 

As a result of the delay chaos prevailed at the Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Metro Station with the crowd swelling every passing minute. Even though the services on the Green line were normal, a large number of people using the Purple line running between Nayandahalli and Baiyappanahalli and to the Majestic metro station were trapped. 

Twenty-seven trains run on the Purple line, with the number of trips increased from the existing 157 to 171. 

Mr Sundar, a commuter took to Twitter to vent his anger over the inconvenience and in his tweet said: "Bangalore's Namma Metro stuck, no announcement from cabin."

"Isn't panic aversion a must, to prevent disaster, common sense", he questioned metro officials and further said that a disaster was averted as Bengaluru has composed citizens.  

Metro staff too were said to be clueless over what was going on for some time but later started their announcements through sound systems and tried to pacify the panicked commuters. 

BMRCL PRO Mr U V Vasanth Rao said that "Train services were affected on the Purple line due to power supply interruption between 10.02 am and 10.28 am."

He further stated that normalcy was restored and the trains services were evenly distributed through short loop services to clear the rush and normal train operations were restored from 11 am. 

Following the morning outage, there was a power interruption for a further  six minutes between 6.20 pm and 6.26 pm. On the evening snag, Mr U V Vasanth Rao said officials claimed that all trains were at the stations with their door open and the AC was working and the normal services commenced from 6.26 pm onwards.