Metro services back on track: 15,000 passengers travelled by Delhi Metro on Day 1

As many as 8 to 10 lakh people travelled by the Yellow line before COVID-19.

The first train to restart operations is the Yellow Line connecting Samaypur Badli to HUDA City Centre in Gurgaon.

The 49-km Yellow Line remained operational for a period of four hours each in the morning (7 am to 11 am) and evening (4 pm to 8 pm).

Other lines are expected to resume operations in a graded manner from September 9 to 12.

The operations in the first four hours from 7-11 am were smooth and around 7,500 passengers availed the services, the DMRC said in a statement.

The metro services resumed on September 7 with safety and social distancing measures in place. The first trains left from Samaypur Badli station to HUDA City Centre station and simultaneously from HUDA City Centre to Samaypur Badli at 7 am, DMRC said.

No stations on the Yellow Line were closed as none is in proximity to any containment zone, it said.

Passengers were allowed to walk into the station only if they had downloaded the Aarogya Setu app, had their temperature checked and sanitised their hands.

Inside the train, commuters had to sit on alternate seats and maintain prescribed distance even while standing. Stickers had been put up on alternate seats and on platforms to ensure that passengers adhered to social distancing norms.

The Home Ministry had issued guidelines allowing metro services in the country to resume operations in a graded manner, following which DMRC had said it would be done in three stages from September 7-12.

The DMRC had appealed to passengers to travel light and "talk less inside trains to prevent the possibility of short-range aerosol transmission".

Due to the pandemic and strict social distancing norms, the carrying capacity of a train has been drastically reduced to around 20 percent of the pre-lockdown period.

Passengers had been advised to avoid unnecessary travel as far as possible.

They have also been asked to try and stagger travel timings for office/home/other works to the extent possible so that the carrying capacity offered with new norms can be reasonably utilised by creating a travel pattern in which people are not rushing to the station in morning or peak hours. The idea is to Break the Peak.

To prevent overcrowding in trains/stations, a situation may arise wherein the authorities may have to opt for starting certain empty trains from terminal stations or short loop some trains to manage the crowded zones, the DMRC had said.

It also asked commuters to remember that dwell time will also increase by 10-20 seconds at stations for boarding-deboarding to ensure social distancing. This may also increase the total travel time in a journey by a few minutes.

Officials had earlier cautioned that "trains may not stop at some of the stations" if social-distancing norms were not adhered to by passengers.

Besides Delhi, Metro networks also restarted operations in a graded manner in Delhi-NCR, Lucknow, Kochi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad, but remained closed in Mumbai, Nagpur, Kolkata and Jaipur.

The Noida Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (NMRC) commenced operations for the general public at 7 am. It recorded a ridership of approximately 200 passengers after operating the trains from 7 AM to 11 AM in the morning at a frequency of 15 minutes.

In the evening it operated from 5 PM to 7 PM with a 15-minute frequency. All the passengers were screened at the entry point for temperature. Their hands were also sanitised at the entrance, post which they were allowed to enter the Metro premises, the NMRC said in a statement.

Kolkata Metro, the country's first rapid transit system, is yet to resume service.

The Maharashtra government had on September 1 decided against the immediate resumption of metro and local train services.

No decision has been taken on restarting metro services in Jaipur.