Gurugram, Sep 7 (IANS): After a gap of over five months, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) resumed its services on the Yellow Line at 7 a.m. on Monday. It connects Samaypur Badli in Delhi to Gurugram's Huda City Centre and Rapid Metro. The decision delivered a relief to the passengers in city.
The passengers started arriving at the Huda City Centre Metro station at around 7 a.m. "All the safety norms are being followed by the metro staff. I was a bit apprehensive at first, but I had a comfortable and safe journey," a passenger, who had arrived at Huda City Centre, told IANS.
However, the number of passengers was much less than usual. An adequate number of teams, including police, health staff, home guards and metro personnel were deployed at the Metro station for the thermal scanning of passengers and other facilities.
Meanwhile, to maintain orderliness and regulate flow of passengers with social distancing norms, only one or two gates were opened for entry and exit of passengers at every station.
Also, to maintain social distance, the Metro management has pasted social distancing stickers on the floor in Hindi -- "Samajik Duri Banaye Rakhe (maintain social distance)" for each distance.
Security personnel deployed at the station were checking smart cards, body temperature of the travellers and sanitizing them as well before entry into the station premises. Tokens were not given to any of the travellers at the stations for the time being as they need frequent human interface for travel transactions and pose a risk of coronavirus infection.
Meanwhile, the DMRC has made an appeal to commuters to avoid travelling unless it is absolutely necessary.
"We are checking each and every passenger before permitting inside the Metro station. Arogya Setu app of each traveller is being checked. Besides this, it is necessary to carry face masks and sanitizers," said a security official deployed at the Huda City Centre Metro station.
Making an appeal to passengers to cooperate with the personnel on duty and keep listening to announcements, a Metro official said, "All staffers have been advised to manage passengers with a positive and caring attitude and help the passengers if they feel any problem. Also keep an eye on the travellers who feel unwell and inform the concerned health team immediately".
"The new norms are to be followed continuously during the entire journey for their own and everyone else's safety," he added.
Apart from this, along with the Gurugram Police, home guards had been deployed at the metro stations to maintain social distance between the passengers.
"We have deployed an extra force at the station premises to avoid any untoward incident. We have also given strict instructions to our personnel to keep an eye on the travellers. If someone is not feeling well, the person should be barred from entering the station premises and should be taken to the nearby health care centre for checkup," said Preet Pal Sangwan, ACP of Gurugram police.
Moreover, a patrolling team at the station kept watch on the people who were inside the station without any reason asking them to leave the station premises. The train was also sanitizing on a regular time being.
Trains will operate in batches of four-hour each from 7-11 a.m. in the morning and 4-8 p.m. in the evening in the first stage, Metro officials said.