New Delhi: A DMRC employee has set the Guinness World Record for the fastest time to travel all Delhi Metro stations, taking 14 hours, 54 minutes and 36 seconds for the whole trip. That’s not it. It’s the second time Prafull Singh has achieved the feat.
Setting off for the record on 23 May, Singh treated the vast Delhi Metro network like a giant logistical puzzle, beating the record of 15 hours, 21 minutes and 4 seconds, set by Sujoy Kumar Mitra and Shipra Gupta in June 2023.
This was no small task. The challenge was far more complicated than just simply getting on a train and riding around Delhi until every station has been ticked off.
The Guinness rules require challengers to visit the stations included in the record category, with the train stopping at each station for the visit to count. They do not have to get off the train at every stop. But evidence of the visit has to be recorded, including a photograph with a digital timestamp or visible clock. Singh previously broke the record in 2022, becoming the first person to travel to 254 Delhi Metro stations in 16 hours, 2 minutes, and 17 seconds.
For his second record, Singh started from the Raja Nahar Singh metro station on the Violet Line at around 6:00 am and reached Millennium City Centre station in Gurugram at 9 pm, after traveling across the Delhi Metro network. It took him a total of 14 hours, 54 minutes and 36 seconds to complete the journey.
“I was sure of breaking the Guiness World Record with a significant margin this time, last time I was delayed by one and a half hours, because I had taken the wrong route. But this time I was sure, ” Singh told ThePrint.
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A seasoned athlete
Singh works in DMRC’s metro operations sector and had a sound idea of metro operations, timings, scheduling, and regulations, His familiarity with the train network helped him achieve this feat.
“This achievement is much more than a personal record for me. Being closely connected with DMRC, it was an opportunity for me to showcase the reach and efficiency of Delhi Metro and encourage greater use of public transport,” he said.
Singh is no stranger to endurance sports. He is an Ironman triathlete and has participated in a range of competitions, including swimming, marathons, and cycling. He also made it to the India Book of Records in 2021, after cycling 3,000 km in 134 hours indoors at his residence.
Singh has now set his sights on a more ambitious goal — swimming from India to Sri Lanka to support cancer research.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)