Bengaluru: Namma Metro faced its first challenge within a month of its opening as trains screeched to a stop across the city when the power supply from KPTCL was snapped from 9.26 am to 9.37 am on Thursday, the longest eleven minutes in the lives of the trapped commuters.
Panic gripped passengers inside the crowded metro with the situation far worse in trains that came to a standstill in the underground tunnel. The bogies were packed with morning rush hour office-goers who, despite the doors being opened to let fresh air in, felt the walls closing in.
Recounting the terrifying minutes, Sudha, an HR professional said, “Our train stopped at Sir M Visvesvaraya metro station. People were getting down from the station and getting in when suddenly the doors wouldn’t close.”
Her sense that something was wrong was reinforced when there was an announcement that due to unspecified technical reasons the train had been stopped for a while.
“After five long minutes, they said the AC will be off in some time so please bear with metro. That is when people started getting worried. The announcement itself was enough to create apprehensions among the people.
Luckily, the doors of the train stayed open or else the situation inside the metro without the AC, in a tunnel, would have been horrible. I was worried about the old people who had boarded the train,” she said.
“Many of us were scared that we would be stranded inside the bogey, unable to get in or out and whether we would be able to even reach office on time. Fortunately, power was restored and we began to move, a little over 10 minutes later, much to the relief of everybody,” said another commuter.
