Delhi Metro's New Year gift to the capital— the 9.7-km Lajpat Nagar-Mayur Vihar Pocket 1 corridor of the Delhi Metro's Pink Line started its commercial operations from Monday after it was jointly flagged off by Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri and Manish Sisodia, Delhi deputy CM at the Metro Bhawan auditorium. The new line will decongest the Ring Road as it brings south and east Delhi closer on a direct route on the rapid transit network.

The new segment is part of the 59-km-long Pink Line, which spans from Majlis Park to Shiv Vihar, has also made the third busiest railway station of the city, Hazrat Nizamuddin, easily accessible by bringing the metro right at its doorstep.

"This is the sixth time a metro corridor has been inaugurated this year, which is truly a great achievement. The work on the Phase-III of the DMRC has been almost completed with nearly 96 km of it being made operational this year," Puri said. Speaking at the function, Sisodia emphasised upon the need to bring down metro fares without compromising on revenue. "I think Metro fares are very high. We need economic marvel to bring them down," he said, referring to the Metro as an engineering marvel. Discouraging comparison with the fare in other countries, he suggested that the same should be revised keeping in view the per capita and economy income of Delhi

The Lajpat Nagar-Mayur Vihar Pocket 1 corridor has five stations -- Lajpat Nagar, Vinobapuri, Ashram, Hazrat Nizamuddin, Mayur Vihar Ph-I and Mayur Vihar Pocket-1. Mayur Vihar Ph-I and Mayur Vihar Pocket-1 are elevated stations and the rest are underground. Only a 1.4-km stretch between Mayur Vihar Pocket-1 and Trilokpuri Sanjay Lake stations of the Pink Line remain to be linked.

This section has one interchange station, Mayur Vihar Ph-1. The facility of interchange of metro trains between line seven and line 3/4 is available through this station.

"South and east Delhi have now been connected directly on the network and commuters can save time by using it, who otherwise had to rely on road transport or a longer route on the Delhi Metro," Puri said.

"The new Mayur Vihar Ph-1 station is an engineering marvel as it has been constructed on a narrow road with only 13 metres of width. The viaduct adjacent to the station passes at a height of 23 meters and goes above the Dwarka–Noida Blue Line viaduct as well as a road flyover. The new station has a length of 140 meters and has 11 escalators and six lifts," the DMRC said.

Trains will operate between Majlis Park and Mayur Vihar Pocket 1 at a peak hour frequency of 5 minutes and 12 seconds. During the non-peak hours, the frequency will be five minutes and 45 seconds.

A total of 29 trains will be operational on this line, officials said.

The Hazrat Nizamuddin Metro station on the Majlis Park-Shiv Vihar Pink Corridor of Delhi Metro's Phase-3 will become one of the metro network's major transit hubs as the station would provide direct connectivity with the Hazrat Nizamuddin Railway Station as well as the Sarai Kale Khan Inter State Bus Terminus.

"The station will have dedicated entry/exit points connecting to the Hazrat Nizamuddin Railway Station and the ISBT at Sarai Kale Khan. One of the entry/exit points will be within a vicinity of 50 meters from the Sarai Kale Khan ISBT. Another entry/exit will be near the Hazrat Nizamuddin Railway Station approximately at a distance of 150 meters," the official said.