After hours of delay, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on Wednesday announced that normal metro services from Durgabai Deshmukh South Campus to Lajpat Nagar on the Pink Line have been resumed. Earlier, the DMRC had issued an alert informing about the delay in metro train services on Pink Line.
“Pink Line Update: Delay in services from Durgabai Deshmukh South Campus to Lajpat Nagar. Normal service on all other lines,” the DMRC had written in a post on X.
Metro is considered Delhi’s lifeline and in view of the air pollution emergency its role in public transportation has become even more important. The DRMC has started running 20 extra train trips across its network as air quality in Delhi and its surrounding areas plunged to “severe” category.
The move to run extra metro train trips has been taken to encourage people to use the public transport in the national capital and its adjoining areas of Noida, Ghaziabad, and others.
Delhi Metro was already running 40 additional train trips on weekdays (Monday-Friday) from October 25 onwards when the GRAP Stage II measures were implemented in the national capital.
Meanwhile, a thick toxic haze or ‘smog’ continued to hang heavy over the national capital as the air quality remained in the ‘severe’ category on Wednesday, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) informed.
According to the data shared by the CPCB, the Air Quality Index (AQI) in Anand Vihar was recorded at 452, while it was at 433, 460, 382, and 413 at RK Puram, Punjabi Bagh, Sri Aurobindo Marg and Shadipur, all in the ‘severe’ category.
Several residents and commuters in the national capital complained of breathing problems and urged the government and the authorities concerned to mobilise steps to curb the runaway air pollution at the earliest.