Covid restrictions: Long queues outside metro stations; DTC buses damaged

Long queues of people were seen outside various Delhi Metro stations for the second consecutive day on Thursday, after the imposition of fresh curbs by authorities to check the spread of a rising number of COVID-19 cases in the national capital.

Meanwhile, anticipating a huge rush of commuters on the New Year's Eve, Delhi Metro authorities have decided that exit from the Rajiv Chowk metro station will not be allowed after 9 pm on Friday.

However, with new Covid restrictions and a night curfew in place from 10 pm onwards in Delhi amid a scare of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, the crowd is likely to be small.

Every year, revellers gather at Connaught Place, the heart of New Delhi, adjacent to the Rajiv Chowk metro station, to ring in the new year.

"To ease overcrowding on New Year's Eve (31st December, 2021), exit from Rajiv Chowk metro station will not be allowed from 9 pm onwards. However, entry of passengers will be allowed till the departure of the last train from the station. Commuters are requested to plan their journey accordingly," the DMRC said in a statement on Thursday.

A "yellow" alert under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) was sounded by the DDMA on Tuesday, which entails the running of DTC buses and metro trains with 50 per cent seating capacity and no provision for standing for commuters.

For the second consecutive day since the restrictions came into force, the queues were seen getting longer at some of the stations in the morning hours, when metro services are used by a large number of office-goers, officials said, adding that they are doing theirs best to ensure compliance of the Covid norms.

Huge queues of commuters were seen outside the Laxmi Nagar and Akshardham stations, among other station, on Wednesday. Many had taken to Facebook and Twitter to share pictures of queues outside metro stations.

Meanwhile, a group of people blocked the MB Road and damaged a few DTC buses on Thursday morning after not being allowed to board a bus that had exceeded the permissible passenger-carrying capacity.

Police used mild force to disperse the crowd and five people were detained, officials said.

Sources said as offices are open and not many can afford a private car or other means of transportation every day, they are bound to use public transport and such queues will be seen if the 50 per cent seating capacity rule is in place.

Delhi resident Rameen Khan, who goes to his office in Gurgaon by metro, said there was a "massive queue" at the station.

In a statement on Thursday evening, DMRC said its permissible carrying capacity had drastically got reduced from 2,400 to 200 for an eight-coach train.

An eight-coach metro train can carry about 2400 passengers, with approximately 50 seating passengers and 250 standing passengers in every coach. With the present restrictions of 50 per cent seating and no standing provision, each coach can now accommodate only about 25 passengers, it said.

Therefore, an eight-coach train can now accommodate approximately 200 passengers only. This is less than 10 per cent of a train's normal carrying capacity, the DMRC said.

"Therefore, travel only if absolutely essential. Also keep extra time in your commute by the metro as entry has to be regulated to ensure compliance with the guidelines, which is resulting in queues outside stations," a senior DMRC official said.

On Wednesday, the DMRC had said as part of the intensified measures for curbing the spread of COVID-19, "15 flying squads were deployed across the Delhi Metro network" to ensure that the Covid safety protocols are strictly adhered to by the passengers inside the trains and on the DMRC premises.

The frequency of checking drives is also being increased to ensure strict adherence to the guidelines and offenders are also being penalised on the spot, a senior official had said.

The DMRC network's current span is nearly 392 km with 286 stations (including the Noida-Greater Noida Metro Corridor and Rapid Metro, Gurgaon).

India saw the highest single-day rise of 180 cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, taking the tally of such cases to 961 in the country, according to the Union health ministry's data updated on Thursday.

Delhi recorded the maximum number of 263 cases, followed by Maharashtra (252), Gujarat (97), Rajasthan (69), Kerala (65) and Telangana (62).

The national capital recorded a whopping 923 fresh Covid cases on Wednesday, the highest daily rise since May 30, as the positivity rate breached the 1 per cent-mark (1.29 per cent) for the second consecutive day.