Delhi Metro’s Magenta Line extension deadline pushed to March 2026

DMRC officials said that the deadlines for the other two corridors under Phase 4- Tughlakabad-Aerocity corridor, Majlis Park-Maujpur corridor- have been revised

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on Sunday said it had completed the structural work for a 4-kilometre-long viaduct from Majlis Park to Bhalswa Metro stations as part of the 29km-long Janakpuri West to RK Ashram Marg corridor of Delhi Metro’s Phase 4. However, the corridor, which is an extension of the Magenta Line, is expected to be operational only by March 2026, a delay from its earlier September 2025 deadline, the DMRC said.

DMRC said it has completed a 4km elevated stretch on the Janakpuri to RK Ashram Marg corridor (HT Photo)

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Moreover, DMRC officials said that the deadlines for the other two corridors under Phase 4 have also been revised. While the Tughlakabad-Aerocity corridor is likely to be completed by March 2025, as against the previous deadline of September 2025; the Majlis Park-Maujpur corridor of Phase IV expected to be completed by March 2025, as against an initial deadline of November 2024.

Meanwhile, DMRC said work on this 4km elevated viaduct was now being offered to system contractors for track laying and traction work such as erection of over-head electrification (OHE) masts.

“The structural work for the viaduct will soon be completed till Haiderpur Badli, as just a crossing over a railway track is left there. This is an important achievement for DMRC’s engineers since the work on this corridor had started amidst the Coronavirus crisis and had to face intermittent delays due to the pandemic, and issues pertaining to tree-cutting clearances,” said Anuj Dayal, principal executive director, corporate communications, DMRC.

He added that work on this section was completed without causing any major disruption to the flow of traffic below.

So far, around 2.2km of underground tunnel work has been completed between Janakpuri West and Krishna Park Extension. On Friday, another tunnel boring machine (TBM) was lowered for tunnelling work between Derawal Nagar to Pulbangash.

“This TBM drive will achieve depth up to 25.9m near the Najafgarh drain. The movement of the TBMs are being monitored round the clock digitally by DMRC since there are a lot of old buildings above,” Dayal added.

On May 27, Delhi lieutenant governor VK Saxena had cleared a major hurdle in the construction of this corridor after approving the transfer of a pocket of land at Keshopur. The 2,790 square metres of land parcel was transferred from the irrigation and flood control (I&FC) department to the DMRC

The LG office had said this was pending since 2019, when the DMRC first wrote to the Delhi government, stating the decision by the LG will finally allow the station premises work to proceed further.

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As part of its Phase 4 expansion, DMRC is currently engaged in the construction of 65km of new lines across three different corridors. Out of these, 28km will be underground and the rest will be elevated. A total of 11 new interchange stations will also come up as part of this new expansion.