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This train won't stop at Rajiv Chowk. Please mind the gap

Updated On: 02 February, 2010 08:18 AM IST | | Mohd. Salman

Technical glitch with automated announcement in a train on Jehangirpuri-Central Secretariat sent passengers in a tizzy

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Technical glitch with automated announcement in a train on Jehangirpuri-Central Secretariat sent passengers in a tizzy

Hundreds of passengers on a Central Secretariat bound train missed a beat around 4:10 pm.
As Shammi Narang announced in his old Doordarshan voice that the train would not stop at the Rajiv Chowk station, panic gripped the passengers.

The Metro train service number 3510 just started from Chawdi Bazar Metro station when the automated announcement came. The passengers were clueless as to why the most important junction on the line would be missed.

However, minutes later the driver of the train announced: "We apologize for the wrong announcement. The train will stop at Rajiv Chowk."

But, the automated voice recorder beamed again that the train would not stop at Rajiv Chowk and the driver had to yet again apologise for the "wrong" announcement. However, the damage had been done.
It was total chaos. The passengers who had been sitting left their seats and gathered around the gate. Some also tried to speak to the driver of the train.u00a0u00a0

Many were heard blaming the Metro administration for "losing the way" after starting on a blemish free record.
Finally, the drama ended when the train stopped at Rajiv Chowk.
The driver of the train told MiD DAY that the error occurred due to "system reboot" leading to wrong announcements.

Metro station in eight months

Surender Sharma
Here comes another first from Delhi Metro. The DMRC would construct first ever Metro station to be built out of steel in phase II.
Delhi Metro spokesperson Anuj Dayal said, "Chhattarpur Metro Station of the Central Secretariat (CTST)-HUDA City Centre (Gurgaon) line will be made fully out of steel. This is the only Metro station on the entire Delhi Metro Rail system in which no concrete will be used."
The DMRC had to resort to this rather unconventional construction technique at Chhattarpur to ensure that the Central Secretariat (CTST)- Gurgaon corridor was opened to the public in time for the Commonwealth Games.
"The conventional construction technique that uses concrete would have taken at least two years for construction. We did not get the requisite two hectares of land on time despite the fact we were trying to acquire this land since September 2006. We got clearance only in October 2009," said Dayal.
To beat the time gap, the DMRC engineers, therefore, decided to adopt a special design using special structural steel to construct the station in only eight months. "No metro station in India has been built in such a short span of time ever so far in India. The station which is now being made by pre-fabricated steel structures," he said.u00a0
About 70 percent of the work on the station has been completed.
He said that to ensure quality control, the DMRC did not permit any welding activity at Chhattarpur and only the steel structures had to be joined together by using bolting arrangements. When asked, whether the using steel would in any way affect the life of the structure he said, "It would last as long as the concrete structure."
About 11,723 passengers are expected to use the station daily which is being made at a cost of Rs 11 crore.

The Other Side

Such technical glitches are very rare but sometimes they do occur, as the train announcement system is auto-programmed. Sometimes the system reboots and takes two minutes to be back to normal. However, to avoid any sort of confusion, the train operators inform the passengers over public announcement system of the train.
--Delhi Metro spokesperson

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