The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation resumed operations on the Blue Line and the Pink Line on Wednesday, after more than 171 days of a shutdown that was necessitated to contain the spread of the coronavirus. The Blue Line runs between Dwarka Sector 21 and Noida Electronic City/Vaishali, while the Pink Line operates from Majlis Park to Shiv Vihar.

Services will be available on both of these lines from 7 am to 11 am and between 4 pm and 8 pm, along with the Yellow Line and Rapid Line, which are already operational on these timings. “The DMRC will be running 66 trains on Blue Line performing around 478 train trips during morning and evening hours on September 9-10,” the metro body said in a statement, according to PTI.

Similarly, 27 trains with approximately 228 trips from Majlis Park to Mayur Vihar Pocket-1 and 13 trains with nearly 291 trips from Trilok Puri-Sanjay Lake to Shiv Vihar sections of Pink line will be put into service on these two days, it added

The Ministry of Home Affairs had recently issued guidelines for the resumption of Metro services across the country in a graded manner under “Unlock 4”, the fourth phase of easing of lockdown restrictions that were first imposed in March. Following this, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation had said it would be done in three stages from September 7 to September 12.

On Monday, the Delhi Metro had resumed services on its Yellow Line and Rapid Metro with curtailed operations and a host of precautionary measures such as mandatory screening, masks and physical distancing. Nearly 15,500 passengers availed the Yellow Line and Rapid Metro combine on Monday, PTI reported. By Tuesday, the number went up to 1,17,600.

The entire Metro network is planned to be made operational for passenger services throughout the day from September 12.