One New Metro Line Scheduled to open every month till 2010 CWG

The opening of the NOIDA line marks the beginning of Phase II of Metro getting operational. Now, a new Metro line will open almost every month till the 2010 Games.

The next section to open for public will be the 6.17-km Yamuna Bank to Anand Vihar line, which has a deadline for next month. After its commissioning, alternate trains from Yamuna Bank will go to NOIDA and Anand Vihar respectively. Like the NOIDA line, this is also an elevated line which runs along Vikas Marg and ends at the Delhi-UP border at Anand Vihar. The line will be further extended by 2.6km to Vaishali in Ghaziabad by September 2010.

The elevated portion of the Gurgaon line will open next in January 2010. A Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) spokesperson explained that only the stretch between Qutab Minar and Gurgaon (14.4 km) will open first as its construction will take less time as compared to the rest of the line , Central Secretariat to Qutab Minar, which is underground. ‘‘It was felt that by opening the Qutab Minar to Gurgaon stretch, residents of the sub-city will be able to come to the Capital and will also get a mode of commuting within Gurgaon where connectivity is very poor,’’ said a spokesperson. The remaining part of the line, spanning 12.53 km, will open in June 2010.

After these, the 15.15km-long Inderlok to Mundka stretch and Kirti Nagar to Ashok Park stretch, both of which will connect to the existing Line 3, will open in March.

In June 2010, the 4.91km stretch on the Badarpur line from Sarita Vihar to Badarpur will be commissioned. The rest of the Badarpur line (15.25 km) connecting Sarita Vihar to Central Secretariat will open in September 2010.

The Airport Express Link, which is the only Delhi Metro line to be built on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model, will open in two parts, the 19.2 km stretch from New Delhi Railway Station to IGI Airport in August 2010 and then a 3.5km extension till Dwarka sector 21 in September 2010.

The existing Line 3 will also be extended till Dwarka Sector 21 (by 2.76km) to integrate the normal Metro with the fast track line.