NEW DELHI - Commuters of the Delhi Metro were caught by surprise Sunday when a series of mock drills conducted at five metro sites caused rail traffic to come to a standstill for over 40 minutes.

Starting 8 a.m., the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) staged mock drills wherein scenes depicting terrorist attacks and serial bomb blasts were created simultaneously in five different metro premises, a DMRC statement said.

The exercise caught commuters by surprise and many complained that the procedures caused undue delays and angst.

I was waiting outside the Vishwavidyalaya station for over half an hour since the station had been cordoned off. I catch a train to Central Secretariat everyday and today I got delayed for my morning shift because of the drill - they did not even bother to tell us what was going on! Shabnam, 24, working in a media house told IANS.

There was no information or notification in papers - we got delayed and nothing was communicated to us, said an angry commuter at New Delhi station.

Meanwhile, DMRC spokesperson Anuj Dayal told IANS: Informing commuters would defeat the very purpose of the mock drill to check preparedness to tackle different situations - this was a routine drill and the situation was brought under control within 45 minutes.

As part of the exercise, calls were also made about a ‘blast’ in the last coach of a train at the Dwarka metro station, on a track between Nawada and Dwarka, in the parking area and coffee shop at Yamuna Bank station and that five terrorists ‘were attacking’ the Kashmere Gate metro station, a DMRC spokesperson said.

Teams from Delhi Metro, Delhi Police, Civil Defence, Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Disaster Management Department and Fire Department participated in the mock drill which ended at 8.43 a.m.

During the drill, all Metro services were stopped. These were resumed soon after the conclusion of the drill.

In all, 15 mock drills have been conducted since 2005 in which mock terrorist attacks, evacuation of trains and stations, derailment and fire conditions were created.

The National Security Guard (NSG) also observed the entire mock drill. They don’t give us certificates for security but they were happy with the level of preparedness, another metro official said.