New Delhi: Delhi government on Tuesday pressed its disaster management mechanism into service in various metro stations, market places and key street intesections following the collapse of the Northern Grid which led to a total blackout in the city, throwing normal life out of gear.
Senior officials like Deputy Commissioners and SDMs were deployed in various busy metro stations to ensure no untoward incidents happen inside the stations and panic-stricken passengers are guided appropriately.
Divisional Commissioner Vijay Dev was personally monitoring the movement of the personnel in which various agencies, including police, health department, Delhi Fire Services and Delhi Transport Corporation, participated.
Ambulances were kept at vulnerable points while DTC had pressed into service an additional 200 buses to ferry people in the event of any emergency.
"We activated the entire disaster management mechanism to avoid any untoward incident and to guide panic-stricken people travelling on metro," said a top official who was part of the drill.
As the power grid collapsed at around 1 PM, Delhi Metro trains stopped on tracks, some inside tunnels, due to non- supply of power and passengers stuck in the trains were evacuated immediately.
Eight trains stopped inside tunnels but were brought to the near-by stations and all passengers evacuated from inside the tunnels.
Officials said personnel from Delhi Disaster Management Authority even counselled panick-stricken people who travelled on the metro.
"Following the halt of metro services, we asked DMRC if they needed our help and they conveyed us that they would be happy if we can assist them in 12 stations," said a DDMA official.
DDMA personnel also helped in easing traffic in a number of areas as there has been widespread traffic jams due to non-functional traffic lights.
PTI
