NEW DELHI: The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation’s plan to install steel barricades on platforms in seven metro stations will be “difficult” to execute as the design of the stations had no provision for such a feature.
The agency, which is in the process of getting technical clearances for the project, has not set a deadline for the completion of the project in view of complications involved in installing barricades in an operational station.
“The work is yet to be started, though we are trying our best to install these steel barricades, which will essentially help in crowd management. It is going to be a time-consuming process as installing them is not an easy task. The Red, Blue and Yellow Lines are the oldest metro lines, and at that time there was no concept of such barricades. It is the new lines such as the Airport Line and the Magenta and Pink lines where the design included Platform Screen Doors (PSDs),” a DMRC official said, requesting anonymity.
Installing PSDs in an operational metro station is difficult in view of the cost and technical challenges involved, so DMRC has opted for steel barricades.
According to the official, the work would be time-consuming as it is related to the design of the stations.
Platform Screen Doors have been installed at six underground stations, all of them on the Yellow Line: Chandni Chowk, Chawri Bazar, New Delhi, Central Secretariat, Rajiv Chowk, and Kashmere Gate.
Last week, a young man committed suicide by jumping on to the metro tracks on the Yellow Line. The barricades will help prevent such incidents.
“These barricades, like PSDs, will act as a barrier between the platform and the tracks for better crowd management, ensuring people stand in queue behind the yellow line, and at the same time prevent any untoward incident such as accidentally falling on the tracks,” said a DMRC statement.
The steel barriers are going to be installed at the following metro stations: Kashmere Gate, Central Secretariat and Lajpat Nagar on the Violet Line, Mandi House, Vaishali and Dwarka Sector-21 on the Blue Line, and Huda City Centre on the Yellow Line.
“Installation will be done in a phased manner,” a DMRC official said in a statement.
“Installing such fixtures in an operational station is a challenging task as a limited time frame (2-4 hours per day) is available, that too at night, when the stations are closed for public services,” the official said.