Soorghat metro station access gates on DMRC radar

The tender indicates that the works include a vehicular underpass and protective secant piling along a nearby drain, with completion scheduled eight months after the contract is awarded.

New Delhi:

To fix this, on June 11, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) floated a tender worth ₹47.34 crore to complete the unfinished station. (HT PHOTO)

More than three months after the Delhi Metro’s Pink Line – dubbed the first full “ring” metro line – was opened to the public, access to the Soorghat station in north Delhi remains blocked. The reason: there is no operational entry or exit to the station. To fix this, on June 11, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) floated a tender worth ₹47.34 crore to complete the unfinished station.

According to the tender document, seen by HT, it seeks agencies for the “construction of balance components of Soorghat station, secant pile along nallah, vehicular underpass including finishing and PEB work” on the Maujpur-Majlis Park corridor of the Pink Line extension.

The tender indicates that the works include a vehicular underpass and protective secant piling along a nearby drain, with completion scheduled eight months after the contract is awarded.

Days after the line was operationalised in March, HT had reported that the station is not functional. DMRC officials had said that the station’s access was planned through a Public Works Department (PWD) subway; however, work had been delayed.

At the time, DMRC’s principal executive director for corporate communications, Anuj Dayal, had said the station’s entry and exit points were designed through the proposed subway and that the metro structure had been integrated with a PWD flyover and an under-construction subway. He had added that DMRC would undertake the subway construction integration issues were resolved, with completion expected by the end of the year.

PWD officials did not respond on the matter by the time of going to print.

The Soorghat station, located near Wazirabad, was among the 10 new stations inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as part of the new 12.3-km Majlis Park-Maujpur Babarpur corridor. The corridor completed the Pink Line’s full ring around the city, making it Delhi Metro’s first operational loop and, at over 71.5 km, its longest corridor.

HT had also taken the metro on March 13. At the Nanaksar Sonia Vihar station – one before the Soorghat station – announcements had begun that the train would skip the next station. The digital display stated, “The train will not stop at Soorghat station. We apologise for the inconvenience caused.”

Locals, meanwhile, questioned the delay. “We waited for several years to have a metro of our own. The station is barely 500 metres from my house, but I can’t use it as it has no stairs or entry point,” Lucky Singh, 19, a resident of the Shiv Mandir-Wazirabad, had said.