Delhi Metro completes 7 years

The Delhi Metro completed seven years of operations on Thursday, a journey during which its fleet of trains have covered over four crore kilometres and carried more than one billion commuters and went beyond the boundaries of the national capital.

The Delhi Metro completed seven years of operations on Thursday, a journey during which its fleet of trains have covered over four crore kilometres and carried more than one billion commuters and went beyond the boundaries of the national capital.

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The first section of the Delhi Metro, an 8.5 km-long stretch between Shahdara and Tis Hazari, was inaugurated on December 24, 2002, and commercial operations began the next day on Christmas.

In the last seven years, the Metro network has grown over 10 times and now covers almost 90 km. Another 6.17 km (Yamuna Bank-Anand Vihar ISBT) is expected to be added to the network by January 2010.

The Metro run about 35,000 km every day on three operational lines (Dilshad Garden to Rithala, Jahangirpuri to Central Secretariat and Dwarka Sec-9 to NOIDA Sec-32).

The Delhi Metro crossed the one billion (100 crore) mark on November 9, for commuters who have travelled by the Metro since it became operational. About nine lakh commuters travel on the Metro on every weekday now, up from just 35,000 when it began.

On November 13, Delhi Metro crossed the boundaries of Delhi by opening the Yamuna Bank-NOIDA Sec 32 section.