Thursday, June 17, 2010

Ride on Gurgaon Metro line from Jun 21

The long-awaited Gurgaon Metro line will be opened to commuters on June 21. The first trains from the end-stations Qutub Minar and Huda City Centre will leave at 8am, bringing the satellite township closer to the Capital. Residents of Gurgaon also finally get a mode of commute within the town.

To start with, trains on the 14.47-km long section will operate at a frequency of 12 minutes. The service will be available from 6am to 11pm.

The residents of Gurgaon finally get a mode of commute within the town. ‘‘The 14.47-km long section will be serviced with five trains in the beginning, which will gradually be increased depending on the response from people. We are expecting the line to be used by about 1.5 lakh people,’’ said a Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) spokesperson.

Half of the Qutub Minar-Gurgaon stretch (7.3km) is across the Delhi border. The fully elevated section has 10 stations, located at Qutub Minar, Chhattarpur, Sultanpur, Ghittorni, Arjangarh, Guru Dronacharya, Sikanderpur, MG Road, IFFCO Chowk and HUDA City Centre. Presently, trains will stop at all stations except Chhattarpur, which is still being constructed. ‘‘The Chhattarpur station is likely to be opened by August. The construction of the station was delayed as the land for the building could not be acquired by DMRC till October last year. The DMRC is now constructing the station in record time using pre-fabricated steel structures,’’ the spokesperson added.

All stations on the line will double up as foot over bridges even for non-Metro commuters and unlike other Metro stations, are equipped with escalators on both sides of the road. The last stop at Huda City Centre is a visual spectacle as the six-storey Metro station will have a Metro train zip across the ‘‘green’’ building — it has been designed in a manner that the train can be seen passing from outside. The corridor has received clearance from the Commissioner of Metro Rail Safety.

By next month, the line will be extended all the way to Central Secretariat, linking the stretch to the existing Line 2 (Central Secretariat to Jehangirpuri). After the middle stretch becomes operational, the full line from Huda City Centre to Jehangirpuri will become the longest Metro line in the city. Once the Gurgaon section begins, DMRC plans to start train trial runs on the rest of the section, construction of which is fast nearing completion.

0 comments: