Delhi Metro’s Blue, Pink lines open; Red, Green and Violet to function from Thurs

The Delhi Metro had from Monday resumed services in a graded manner after a gap of 169 days. The first line to be opened was the Yellow Line (Samaypur Badli to Huda City Centre) and the Rapid Metro in Gurugram.

The Delhi Metro will resume services on two more of its lines from Wednesday, improving travel options for commuters across the city.

A blue line metro rail seen during its trial run ahead of the resumption of DMRC's blue line metro service for public during the coronavirus outbreak, at Janakpuri, in New Delhi. (Sanchit Khanna/HT PHOTO)

From 7am Wednesday, trains will start running on the 65.35km Blue Line, connecting Dwarka Sector 21 and Vaishali/Noida Electronic City, and on the 57.58km Pink Line, connecting Majlis Park and Shiv Vihar.

The Delhi Metro had from Monday resumed services in a graded manner after a gap of 169 days. The first line to be opened was the Yellow Line (Samaypur Badli to Huda City Centre) and the Rapid Metro in Gurugram.

On Wednesday, too, services will be available to passengers in two shift timings -- from 7am to 11am and from 4pm to 8pm. Entry and exit will be restricted at stations, and commuters can check which gates will remain open on the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation website, www.delhimetrorail.com.

“As part of the stage one graded resumption of Metro services, the Delhi Metro will resume operations on Blue and Pink lines. Along with these two lines, the Yellow Line and the Rapid Metro, which had already opened on Monday, will continue operations,” said Anuj Dayal, executive director (corporate communications), DMRC.

The services on the Red Line (Rithala to Shaheed Sthal New Bus Adda), Green Line (Kirti Nagar/Inderlok to Bahadurgarh) and the Violet Line (Kashmere Gate to Ballabhgarh) will resume from Thursday.

From Friday, the Magenta Line (Janakpuri West to Botanical Garden) and Grey Line (Dwarka to Najafgarh) will be thrown open and, finally, on Saturday, the Airport Express Line will be thrown open. By Saturday, the Metro timings will be back to the pre-lockdown schedules of 6am to 11pm.

Anticipating the opening of the two lines, final preparations were undertaken on Tuesday at all stations falling on these corridors. DMRC teams were seen disinfecting floors and common touchpoints such as staircase railings, automatic fare collection (AFC) gates and ticket counters. Station staff were also asked to ensure that floor markings are placed so that crowding does not take place on the station premises.

The Delhi Metro will be running 66 trains on the Blue Line, which will make 478 trips during the morning and evening hours. Pink Line will have 27 trains making 228 trips from Majlis Park to Mayur Vihar Pocket 1, and 13 trains making 291 trips between Trilokpuri and Shiv Vihar.

The opening of the Blue and Pink lines on Wednesday will enable interchange facilities at 28 Metro stations. Commuters will now be able to switch lines from Rajouri Garden (Blue and Pink), INA Delhi Haat (Yellow and Pink), Mayur Vihar phase-1 (Blue and Pink), Rajiv Chowk (Yellow and Blue), Yamuna Bank (Blue, between Vaishali and Noida Electronic Centre sections) and Anand Vihar ISBT (Blue and Pink), among others.

That would, however, mean that the DMRC will be staring at a bigger challenge of managing crowds at stations and on trains. Sewa Ram, professor, School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi, said from Wednesday, more passengers will queue up to use the Metro and the agency should be prepared to handle the load.

“Till Tuesday, only one line was operational. With more lines being opened, the load on the Yellow Line will also go up because interchange facilities will be available now. They can consider having queuing areas outside stations for crowd control. This would give people a safe space to wait as well,” he said.