After being closed for 169 days due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Delhi Metro resumed services on Monday, even as it appealed to people to use the rapid transport only if urgently needed. The metro services began at 7 am in the morning.

In phase 1, metro services resumed on Yellow Line, connecting Samaypur Badli to Huda City Centre and Rapid Metro in Gurugram.

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“On this Monday and Tuesday, only the Yellow line which covers 37 stations–20 underground and 17 elevated ones– will remain operational for a period of four hours,” a statement from DMRC said.

Earlier, officials had issued a warning that “trains may not stop at some of the stations” if social distancing norms are not followed by the passengers. Trains will operate in batches of four-hour each from 7-11 am in the morning and 4-8 pm in the evening in the first stage.

“We have deployed police force at every metro station for crowd management and to ensure that people wear face masks and follow norms of social distancing,” said Atul Katiyar, Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Delhi, to ANI.

Metro services in Delhi-NCR closed since March 22 due to the pandemic. In the next five days, the rest of the lines will also be made operational with all safety measures in place to check the spread of COVID-19 in the metro premises.