Magenta line inaugurated by PM Modi, Noida-South Delhi commute to take 20mins

The 12.64-kilometre section of Delhi Metro’s magenta line inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi today connects Botanical Garden in Noida to Kalkaji in southeast Delhi with seven other stations along the way

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Delhi Metro’s Magenta Line at Botanical Garden Metro station on Monday afternoon bringing parts of south Delhi closer to Noida by at least 30 minutes.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi rides the newly inaugurated magenta metro line from Botanical Garden station to Okhla Bird Sanctuary along with the Uttar Pradesh governor Ram Naik and state chief minister Yogi Adityanath at Noida on Monday. (PTI Photo)

The 12.64-kilometre section of the new line connects Botanical Garden in Noida to Kalkaji in southeast Delhi with seven other stations along the way. The line is scheduled to be extended till Janakpuri in west Delhi by March 2018.

The inauguration was also attended by Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath though no invitation was extended to Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal.

At 5 pm, the commercial services commenced on the line.

Initially, the trains will be operated with a frequency of 5.14 minutes on this section.

With this launch, Botanical Garden became the first interchange station of the DMRC located outside Delhi’s boundaries as it was already one of the stations on the Dwarka-Noida City Centre Blue Line.

Through this station, the commuters will be able to travel from Noida to various parts of south Delhi and the domestic terminal of the Indira Gandhi International Airport, when the entire Magenta Line becomes operational by March, 2018.

Until now, it used to take around 52 minutes to travel from Noida to south Delhi. The Magenta Line has brought it down to 19 minutes.

Some features of the new line include platform screen doors, which are currently there only on the Airport Express Line and new generation trains, which can run on an unattended mode or without operators.

Ahead of PM’s visit, the city had been barricaded by the police and armed forces personnel. As many as 5,155 security personnel are on duty for the day. The area has been divided into 15 zones and additional security personnel have been brought in from various parts of the state.

Entry of vehicles has been barred on few important routes in Noida ahead of PM Modi’s visit.

This was the second instance in three days when CM Yogi was visiting Noida thereby breaking the ‘jinx’ associated with the city. For the last eight years, it has been said that any CM visiting Noida was bound to lose power if they visit Noida.

(With agency inputs)