Technical snag hits Lucknow metro on debut ride: 101 passengers rescued
A day after Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath jointly flagged off the metro service in Lucknow, commuters got stuck inside the train for more than two hours because of a technical glitch during the debut commercial ride. With the metro coming to a sudden halt in its first ride, passengers were trapped inside the coaches without light and air conditioning. However, later panicked passengers were evacuated through the emergency door.
Yesterday, Rajnath and Adtityanath flagged off the first commercial ride of the Lucknow Metro which will be running from Transport Nagar to Charbagh and will be operational from 6 am to 10 pm. Asserting that the inauguration of the Metro will boost up infrastructural growth in UP, Rajnat Sing dedicated the project to veteran BJP leader and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. As reported by The Indian Express, Singh said. “Lucknow will now be known as the city of metro rail. Atalji was an MP from Lucknow and as PM, he had launched the first metro rail project in the country in Delhi.”
Enjoyed my maiden ride in Lucknow Metro today. Now Lucknow will also be known as 'Metro Ka Shahar'. Thank you E Sreedharan ji & Team LMRC pic.twitter.com/a7tcoszw8K
— Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) September 5, 2017
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While the Lucknow Metro rail Corporation (LMRC) has directed for an investigation into the matter, primary reports suggest that the train broke down because of the sudden application of the emergency brake. The official statement released by LMRC mentions, “Around 7.15 am, the metro train that was on its way from Charbagh to Transport Nagar developed a technical snag. The Emergency Brakes (EB) were applied in the train when the train was travelling between Durgapuri and Mawaiya Metro stations.”
And amid complaints of suffocation and rising temperature within the train, 101 passengers commuting the metro for the first time, were evacuated from the emergency exit and were taken to Durgapuri Metro station and later to Transport Nagar Metro station.
In December last year, the then Chief Minister of UP Akhilesh Yadav and Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav flagged off the trial run of the train on the same stretch, days before the crucial Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. With the final inauguration of the metro service, yesterday, the political uproar started between the former Akhilesh-led government and the ruling Yogi Adityanath government.
Hitting out at the saffron party government, Samajwadi Party stated that the Chief Minister and Home Minister is inaugurating a project which had already been flagged off by the former CM. Furthermore, Akhilesh Yadav took to Twitter to share photographs of him with the LMRC officials during the launch of the service in December last year.
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लखनऊ मेट्रो तो पहले से ही बनकर तैयार थी, भारत सरकार ने CMRS के जरिए NOC देने में इतना लंबा वक़्त लिया, फिर भी पहले ही दिन मेट्रो ठप ! pic.twitter.com/zTclU6qdzm
— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) September 6, 2017
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Keywords: Lucknow Metro, Akhilesh Yadav, Yogi Adityanath, Rajnath Singh, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Samajwadi Party, SP, BJP, Uttar Pradesh, LMRC, Metro railway, Atal Bihari Bajpayee