Track record intact

Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has lived up to its reputation of opening sections well in advance of deadlines, reports Atul Mathur.

Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has lived up to its reputation of opening sections well in advance of deadlines.

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The 6.36-km Vishwavidyalaya-Jehangirpuri section has been opened nine months ahead of schedule. Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit flagged off the first Metro train on this section from Jehangirpuri on Tuesday. Regular services on the section start on Tuesday.

The extension will reduce commuting time between central Delhi and north Delhi to a mere 30 minutes. By road, the commute takes at least an hour.

However, till additional coaches arrive in May, trains would terminate alternately at Vishwavidyalaya and Jehangirpuri stations.

This is the second section to have opened under Metro’s Phase II expansion project. The 3.07-km Shahdara-Dilshad Garden extension was inaugurated in June last year.

More to come

“We will open at least three more lines and add 40-km of Metro network this year. The 16-km Inderlok-Mundka line will become operational in September, followed by the 14-km Indraprastha-Noida section in October and the 7-km Yamuna Bank-Anand Vihar line in December,” said DMRC managing director E. Sreedharan.

Terming the extension a historical achievement, the CM said there was a proposal to extend the Jehangirpuri line by another 3.42-km up to Badli. She said DMRC was already working on this proposal.

Stressing on the need to promote public transport, Dikshit said feeder buses would be made available in a 5-7-kilometre radius of Metro stations, so that people could leave their cars behind. “Delhi is the first city in India where the Metro project is progressing fast and, by the Commonwealth Games in 2010, no part of the Capital would remain untouched by the Metro,” the CM said.