A watershed year for Delhi Metro, 2010 saw the ambitious Phase-II project getting almost completed and most of the Commonwealth Games venues getting connected to the network, but not before its ‘punctual’ image took a beating due to frequent technical glitches.

The year also saw Delhi Metro starting the country’s first Standard Gauge Line between Mundka and Inderlok in April and its Managing Director Mr E. Sreedharan getting a one-year extension in service, his fifth since joining the organisation in 1997.

Though there was no mishap or derailments like in 2009, the technical problems on trains and on the over-head electrification system kept Metro officials on their toes for most part of the year.

The technical problems that led to delay in services somewhat dented the Metro’s image among lakhs of commuters in the year gone by despite the new age transport system’s assertion that delays and glitches happen in every underground metro rail system across the world.

Women got their ‘exclusive club’ in the form of a special coach in every train from October 2 though it did not initially go down well with male passengers.

For Delhi Metro, 2010 will be remembered as a remarkable year as it added another 70 km to its network and brought the satellite city of Gurgaon a little closer to the national capital.

But, all this did not happen without delays and missed deadlines. The high-speed Airport Express Line and a small stretch between Sarita Vihar and Badarpur have not yet been opened to the public, three months after they missed their Commonwealth Games deadline.

However, the good balanced out the bad as south Delhi and west Delhi got connected to the Metro and travelling to far away places in these areas and Gurgaon became much easier.

The silver lining for the organisation in the year gone by is the connectivity it provided to the venues of the Commonwealth Games in Delhi. Out of the 11 venues, 10 of them had Metro connectivity and even the Delhi Police advised sports lovers to use Metro to reach the stadia.

The technical glitches and delays in trains have become a regular future on the Delhi Metro, which was once free of these things.

There have been a number of incidents throughout 2010 of services getting delayed by hours due to software malfunctioning, technical problems and problems in the OHE. After several incidents of delay, Delhi Metro also revamped its OHE system on the Noida line before the Games.

In November, Mr Sreedharan also constituted a committee to look into the technical glitches after services on Gurgaon were stalled due to a OHE problem for hours on a busy Friday.

Metro also had to battle the ever-ending problem of over-crowding on trains though 100 new trains were inducted into passenger services. From 80 trains in 2009, Metro’s fleet increased to 185 at the end of the year that also saw the introduction of much-awaited six-coach trains.

The year also saw the ridership increasing to 16 lakh after the addition of 67 km to the network.

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