Metro gets a swank new address

The DMRC will shift its central operations control centre and corporate office to Metro Bhawan on Barakhamba Road, reports Sidhartha Roy.

The heart of the Capital, Connaught Place, will soon house the nerve-centre of the Delhi Metro. By mid-August, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) will shift its central operations control centre and corporate office to Metro Bhawan on Barakhamba Road.

HT Image

“The new Metro Bhawan is now ready and our corporate office and operations control centre would be shifted there by the middle of next month,” said DMRC spokesman Anuj Dayal.

Construction of the eight-storey building, situated behind the Super Bazar building in Connaught Place, started two years back.

“Our officers are scattered all over Delhi, with the corporate office at NBCC Place in Pragati Vihar and OCC at Shastri Park and many other field offices. Our officials were wasting a lot of time commuting between the different offices and keeping Delhi's traffic in mind, it was leading to huge loss of time,” Dayal said.

“Our present OCC would be shifted here, from where operations across the Metro network could be controlled. There would be a backup OCC also, which would be useful when our Phase II, spread across 128 kms, becomes operational,” he said, adding one OCC would not be sufficient for such a large network.

The building is environmentally friendly and has also been earmarked for silver award by the Government of India.

“We have taken extensive power saving measures like using natural light as much as possible and the air-conditioning would automatically turn off when an area is not in use. Latest building management system has been used in the Bhawan,” he said. The Metro Bhawan would also have an auditorium to seat 300 people, something the present DMRC office doesn’t have.