Technical glitch twice disrupts Kolkata Metro services

Metro Railway passengers were inconvenienced twice on Thursday owing to a technical glitch in the third rail and its rectification, an official said. The third rail, an additional rail running parallel to the tracks, supplies electricity to the Metro trains.

Services were first hit in the morning after sparks were noticed on the third rail at 8.25 am when the train was approaching Dumdum station from Noapara, Kolkata Metro spokesperson Indrani Banerjee said. "Power supply to the third rail was immediately stopped and passengers were evacuated from the train. They were then escorted to the platform at Dumdum by the Metro railway officials," Banerjee said.

Truncated services were maintained between Girish Park and Kavi Subhash stations during the disruption, the Metro spokesperson stated. Normal operations resumed for three-and-a-half hours from 9.49am after necessary measures were taken by the Metro engineers, she said.

"We had to stop the service again for half-an-hour from 1.30pm as the power to the third rail was disconnected to rectify the faults," Banerjee added. The glitch inconvenienced hundreds of passengers during the day. They were seen waiting outside the Metro stations, trying to hop on public transport to reach their destination.

(With inputs from agencies.)