NEW DELHI: As the Delhi Metro is yet to reopen all the entrance gates of its stations, commuters are forced to stand in long queues, often leading to crowding. It has been nearly two months since the public transporter closed some of the gates at the stations, in a bid to control the spread of the coronavirus.
Meanwhile, DMRC said that unless the city government issues instructions, the gates will not be opened fully. It was on December 29, when the DMRC had issued strict travel protocol following the DDMA tightening guidelines. In view of the DDMA orders, the entry into metro stations was regulated with fewer entrance gates allowed to open.
According to officials, out of the total 712 gates, only 444 are now being kept open. Kushal Arora, a commuter at Delhi Gate Metro Station said, “I used to get down at the entrance gate near the stadium to reach my office since it was nearer. But, after the DMRC closed this gate, the extra walking consumes a lot of time.”
Similar is the situation at the ITO metro station where the gate near the passport office has been closed since December end and one has to walk to the gate near the PWD headquarters to enter the station. Other temporarily closed stations are Shadipur, Dwarka Mor, Tagore Garden, Rajouri Garden, Patel Nagar, Subhash Nagar, Kirti Nagar, Rajendra Place, Moti Nagar, Bahadurgarh City, Brigadier Hoshiar Singh, Shyam Park, Raj Bagh and Mohan Nagar.
Jhandewalan, R K Ashram Marg, Karkardooma, Preet Vihar, Nirman Vihar, Supreme Court, Anand Vihar and ISBT, Vaishali are the other temporarily closed stations. However, in a response on Twitter, the DMRC said, “The current measures are being taken to regulate and control the flow of passengers for their safe travel.”