(Source: ANI/Twitter) (Source: ANI/Twitter)

This is not what the nearly 100 passengers, who took the Lucknow Metro on its first day of commercial run on Wednesday, had expected on their first trip. The metro came to a sudden halt owing to a technical snag and the passengers remained stuck inside the coaches without any light and airconditioning for over an hour, PTI reported. They were later made to exit through the emergency door.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had jointly flagged off the commercial run of the Lucknow Metro yesterday. Governor Ram Naik was also present on the occasion. The 8.5-km priority corridor ‘runs from Transport Nagar to Charbagh and is to be operational from 6 am to 10 pm every day.

A press release on the incident from the Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation stated: “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.”

It added that all the 101 passengers were evacuated from the emergency exit door of the train and taken to

Durgapuri Metro station and then to the Transport Nagar Metro station from where they exited.

On Tuesday, Rajnath, who represents Lucknow in Lok Sabha, said the metro rail has opened the doors to infrastructure development in the UP capital. “Lucknow will now be known as the city of metro rail,” he said, dedicating the project to former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee. “Atalji was an MP from Lucknow and as PM, he had launched the first metro rail project in the country in Delhi,” the Home Minister said.

Adityanath also announced that instead of setting up separate metro rail corporations to execute projects in different parts of the state, the state government has decided to set up a UP Metro Rail Corporation. The CM also invited ‘Metro Man’ E Sreedharan, who is currently principal advisor to Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation, to work with the corporation as principal advisor.

The metro inauguration had also sparked a battle between the present and the former government to take credit for the project. Samajwadi Party has said that CM Adityanath inaugurated a project that has already been flagged off by former CM Akhilesh Yadav. Akhilesh too to Twitter and posted photographs of him with the officials of Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation.

“Lucknow Metro will make life easy and will recall the memories about Sreedharanji and the team that made the dream come true,” Akhilesh tweeted.

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