Delhi Metro’s Violet Line badly hit due to erratic power supply

Metro services in the capital were badly hit on Tuesday as movements of seven trains were affected with four round trip cancellations, two delayed and one partial cancellation on the Violet Line connecting ITO to Escorts Mujesar due to erratic power supply.

Power supply at three substations tripped intermittently in the morning causing hardships to office goers stranded in trains and stations.

It was a “rare situation” when three substations tripped one after another due to problems of power supply causing cancellation of four round trips, two delayed trips and one partial trip cancellation on the Line 6 (Violet Line), said Sharat Sharma, Director (Operations) of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC).

“Intermittent power supply failure from Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam Ltd (HVPNL) and Delhi Transco Ltd (DTL) to DMRC’s substations located at Faridabad, Sarita Vihar and Park Street led to tripping of OHE. These substations distribute power to entire Line-6 for running trains and stations,” he said.

The problem began with power tripping at Sarita Vihar substations at 8.11 am and immediately supply was restored from Faridabad substation which also tripped at 8.28 am. Supply tripped at both the substations thrice each, intermittently, affecting the train movement.

To tackle the situation, power supply was restored from IP Extension substation but it also tripped for five minutes at 8.25 am. Finally, power supply was restored at Faridabad substation at 9.42 am and situation normalised at 9.49 am. For three minutes, between 8.25 am to 8.28 am, there was no power available, said the official.

Metro services in the recent past have been hit due to one or another reason. A power supply snag hit the Yellow Line, delaying train movement along the North-South corridor, yesterday. DMRC has lodged a case against a telecom company in this regard for snapping a power line.

The Blue Line (3) connecting Dwarka Sector 21 to Noida City Centre and Vaishali is often affected by snags related to signalling problems.

“Line 3 is more prone to failures due to a different signalling system used by us,” Sharma said.

Office-goers had a hard time as they were stranded in the trains as well as on stations as train services remained affected for around two hours.

“In normal cases of tripping at any substation, the power supply is restored from another one but in this particular case the situation was difficult due to tripping of power supply at three substations intermittently,”  Sharma said.