Power snag halts Metro services for an hour

Kolkata: Power failure at Central station led to disruption in Metro services for an hour on Friday. Commuters were completely taken by surprise when electricity at the substation tripped at 11.25am and trains came to a halt.

Metro ran truncated services between Maidan and Kavi Subhas stations and from Girish Park to Dakshineswar during the time. “A train was reversed from Maidan and another from Girish Park towards Dakshineswar,” a Metro Railway spokesperson said. Services were restored at 12.26pm.

The power failure brought back memories of July 2017 when Metro trains were stalled and stations went dark, triggering panic among thousands of commuters after a power snag near Rabindra Sadan station. “At that time, the power failure led to a fire. Fortunately, there was no such thing happened today. Good Friday being a holiday, not many commuters were inconvenienced,” said a station superintendent. In the 2017 incident, smoke was seen billowing out of the sub-station off Nehru Children’s Museum.

There are five sub-stations — at Rabindra Sadan, Masterda Surya Sen, Jatin Das Park, Central and Shyambazar stations — through which CESC supplies power to Metro.

“As I walked into Esplanade station at 11.40pm, I was told that there is no power in the third line and no trains are plying,” said Surabhi Banerjee, a commuter. The Metro authorities curtailed supply from the sub-station to the platforms and the third rail at Central station. Metro engineers immediately set out to rectify the problem and restore normal operation. A section of passengers were harassed though since Metro Railway was running less trains on Good Friday. There were 232 services along the north-south line instead of the usual 252. There were 160 services instead of 172 along the Dakshineswar extension.

Mintu Mondol, a company executive, said, “I had to wait for 35 minutes when the snag happened. I was trying to take a train to Noapara from Kavi Subhas and was told that only truncated services are available. I had to take two buses to cover the distance.”


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