Signaling fault halts metro services at Dakshineswar and Baranagar; commuters suffer

Commuters in Kolkata faced a harrowing Wednesday morning as services on the Metro's Blue Line were abruptly disrupted due to a major signaling failure. The technical glitch, which surfaced around 8:15 AM, brought train movements between Dakshineswar and Baranagar stations to a complete standstill. As the incident occurred during the peak office-going window, thousands of daily wage earners and professionals found themselves stranded at stations, leading to widespread frustration and overcrowding on platforms across the northern section of the line.

To manage the crisis, Metro authorities operated truncated services between Baranagar and Shahid Khudiram. This temporary arrangement, however, provided little relief to passengers traveling from the Dakshineswar terminal, many of whom were forced to exit the stations and seek alternate modes of transport like buses and app-cabs. Initial reports from Metro officials confirmed that the disruption was rooted in a signaling system error that prevented safe train clearance in the affected stretch, marking yet another technical setback for the city's oldest metro corridor this month.

Engineering teams were immediately deployed to the site to troubleshoot the system. After nearly an hour of intensive repair work, the signaling fault was rectified, and normal operations across the entire stretch from Dakshineswar to Shahid Khudiram were restored. By late morning, the frequency of trains returned to the regular schedule, though the residual impact of the delay caused significant overcrowding in subsequent rakes. Passengers have expressed mounting concern over the recurring technical snags on the Blue Line, calling for more robust preventive maintenance.