The 290-metre section between Mayur Vihar Pocket 1 and Trilokpuri-Sanjay Lake was inaugurated on Friday by Union housing and urban affairs minister Hardeep Singh Puri and chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who flagged off the first train via video conferencing.
Passenger services began at 3pm with trains traversing the nearly 59-km-long arc from the capital’s northern and north-eastern fringes while connecting all the other Delhi Metro corridors at 11 interchange points.
Puri said that though the inaugurated section might be minuscule in length, from the perspective of enhanced connectivity, it would play an extremely crucial role because it allows seamless and end-to-end travel.
Kejriwal said, “I remember how we faced a lot of problems during the construction in this area.” He added that Delhi Metro Rail Corporation’s managing director Mangu Singh had met him many times to discuss the problems being faced in rehabilitating the people whose land had been acquired. “Everyone cooperated and coordinated to tackle this hurdle and eventually we overcame the difficulties and solved the problems to reach this day when we are throwing open the stretch,” he said.
Durga Shanker Mishra, housing and urban affairs secretary, disclosed that the DMRC network would complete 458km in the next four years. With 96km of the network turning ‘driverless’ on Friday, Delhi Metro also had the longest driverless stretch in the world, he said.
A total of 43 six-coach trains would be deployed on the corridor. Train services from the Majlis Park to Sarai Kale Khan Nizamuddin and Shiv Vihar to IP Extension sections will be available at a frequency of 5 minutes and 12 seconds, said Anuj Dayal, executive director (corporate communications), DMRC.
However, only every alternate train would traverse the entire corridor. This means that a commuter could take the train leaving Majlis Park to reach Maujpur and then take a shuttle train to Shiv Vihar, while the next train would go only up to Sarai Kale Khan Nizamuddin and return. Similarly, ne train from the other end of the corridor will return from IP Extension, while the next would go all the way to Majlis Park.
Trains on every station of the corridor, therefore, will be available every 5 minutes and 12 seconds at peak hours, but those boarding a train from any station between Sarai Kale Khan Nizamuddin and IP Extension will have to wait a minimum of 10 minutes and 24 seconds to board a train.
Also, trains will be run with a temporary speed restriction of 25 kmph on the 1.5 km between Mayur Vihar Pocket 1 and Trilokpuri-Sanjay Lake due to non-availability of automated signalling system on this stretch, which is still under commissioning. “The integration of the signalling system of this particular stretch in an already operational line is a challenging task and we expected to commission the system in the next two months, after which the trains will move with regular speed on this stretch too,” said Dayal.
The corridor will further be extended from Majlis Park to Maujpur as part of DMRC’s Phase IV project, making it not only the longest metro corridor in India at approximately 70km, but also the only ‘ring corridor’ of any metro rail in the country.
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