Delhi Metro: Red Line, Violet Line, Green Line resume services after gap of 172 days

Delhi Metro's Red Line, Violet Line and Green Line resumed operations on Thursday after being closed for 172 days due to the COVID-19 pandemic, officials said.

Prior to this, Yellow Line and Rapid Metro were the first ones to be reopened on Monday, followed by Blue Line and Pink Line resuming services on Wednesday.

"7 lines of the Delhi Metro network are now open! Thank you dear commuters for following the safety guidelines and helping us maintain good service. #MetroBackOnTrack," the DMRC tweeted after the three new lines resumed services.

Services on the Red Line, Violet Line and Green Line resumed at 7 am, officials said.

"With the services available on most of the metro lines now, the total ridership recorded in today's operational hours (from 7 am to 11 am) and then from 4 pm till 07:30 pm, was nearly 84,841 -- Line 1: 8,037; Line 2: 2,9656; Line 3 & 4: 31234; Line 5: 3,564; Line 6: 6,373; and Line 7: 5,977, the DMRC said in a statement.

On Monday, the Delhi Metro had resumed services with curtailed operation of the Yellow Line, since the closure of the urban transporter on March 22.

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

Under stage one, Yellow Line or Line 2 and Rapid Metro were made operational with restricted service hours.

Trains are operating in batches of four-hour each from 7-11 am and 4-8 pm in the first stage.

On Wednesday, Blue Line and Pink Line were made operational with the same schedule.

Red Line (Rithala to Shaheed Sthal New Bus Adda (Ghaziabad); Green Line (Kirti Nagar/Inderlok to Brig. Hosihar Singh (Bahadurgarh); and Violet Line (Kashmere Gate to Raja Nahar Singh (Ballabhgarh), resumed services from September 10 with the same time schedule, the DMRC said.

"DMRC will be running 35 trains on Red Line (Rithala-Shaheed Sthal New Bus Adda) performing around 413 train trips during morning and evening hours on September 10. Similarly, 40 trains with approx 344 trips will be put into service on the Violet Line (Kashmere Gate-Raja Nahar Singh)," the DMRC had said on Wednesday.

On the Green Line (Kirtinagar/Inderlok - Brig. Hoshiar Singh), 20 trains with 268 train trips will be put into service, the statement said.

"The trips will be subsequently increased as the operational timing of services get extended on September 11-12 with the opening of other lines in a graded manner," it added.

The list of gates which will remain open for entry of passengers at each station along with all necessary updates are available on the home page of Delhi Metro's official website.

The entire metro network is planned to be made operational for passenger services throughout the day from September 12 onwards with all social distancing norms and guidelines to be followed by the passengers during the travel due to ongoing pandemic.   Wearing masks is mandatory inside train coaches and at stations' premises. Metro services in Delhi-NCR was closed since March 22 due to the pandemic.

The DMRC has appealed to people to use the rapid transport only if urgently needed.