Cable worth ₹17.85 lakh stolen from metro track in Gandhinagar, police probe underway

In a major security breach, approximately 700 meters of copper cable were stolen from the Gandhinagar–Ahmedabad metro line, disrupting rail operations and prompting a police investigation. The theft, valued at ₹17.85 lakh, is the latest in a series of similar incidents targeting public infrastructure.

The Infocity Police Station registered an FIR and has launched a search operation to trace the unidentified culprits. Authorities suspect the involvement of a well-organised gang and have not ruled out the possibility of insider involvement, given the location and scale of the theft.

The incident came to light around 3 am on Monday when Amar Patel, Traction Power Controller for Gujarat Metro Rail Corporation (GMRC), reported a sudden disruption in power supply between Trankoba Circle and Old Koba Metro stations. A train was found stalled due to the outage.

According to the complaint filed by Mayur Bahulbhai Joshi, a Section Engineer with GMRC, a field inspection revealed that 28 copper electric cables had been removed from along the tracks on the duck bridge between Sardar Circle and Koba stations. The stolen cables formed a critical part of the metro’s traction power system.

This theft follows a similar incident reported just 10 days earlier in Ahmedabad, where cables worth over ₹9 lakh were stolen from the metro network. In that case, the culprits also remain unidentified.

Incidents of cable theft are reportedly on the rise in Gandhinagar and surrounding areas, raising concerns over infrastructure security in the state capital. The police have stepped up surveillance around metro corridors and are working to identify patterns linking the recent thefts.

GMRC officials have yet to issue a public statement, but internal sources confirmed that the disruption delayed metro services for several hours and led to additional inspection of vulnerable points across the route.

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