Metal Chain in Door Guideway Disrupts Purple Line Metro at Cubbon Park Station

A commuter's metal chain lodged in a train door guideway disrupted Namma Metro Purple Line services at the Cubbon Park Metro Station in Bengaluru on Thursday evening, forcing officials to deboard passengers and delaying subsequent trains.

The incident occurred at approximately 7:36 PM on Thursday when the doors of a train failed to close properly. As a precautionary safety measure, commuters were deboarded at the station.

According to the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL), the deboarding and safety procedure took approximately 17 minutes to complete. This disruption caused a 17-minute delay to the affected train and led to temporary delays for the next five train services on the busy Purple Line.

In a statement released on Friday, BMRCL officials clarified that the disruption was not caused by a technical failure. Investigations by the operations and maintenance teams revealed that a metal chain belonging to a commuter was lodged in the train door guideway, preventing the doors from closing properly.

A detailed examination of the train and its door systems confirmed that there was no technical malfunction in the train equipment. BMRCL stated that all necessary safety protocols were followed before the train was cleared to return to service.

The disruption occurred amid heightened public attention on metro reliability. Earlier in the week, on Tuesday, Purple Line operations were affected by a separate technical glitch that halted evening services until Wednesday morning. BMRCL officials stated that damage to the electrified third rail powering the train caused Tuesday's halt, and an investigation into that incident remains underway.

The Namma Metro network in Bengaluru handles a daily ridership of about 9 to 10 lakh, with the Purple Line alone catering to 4.50 lakh commuters.

The recent service disruptions drew criticism from local political figures. BJP MP Tejasvi Surya and MLC CT Ravi slammed the operational halts, stating that alarmingly frequent breakdowns could not become the norm in a global city.