With the opening of the Central Secretariat-Janpath-Mandi House Metro corridor on Thursday, the Delhi Metro formally marked the beginning of its ambitious Phase III project. The corridor was inaugurated by Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu as he urged his Cabinet colleagues to use the Metro services. Named the Heritage line, opening of the Janpath station on the 3.23-km corridor will be a big boon for shopaholics visiting the bustling market, which was till now devoid of direct Metro connectivity. Further, the underground Metro corridor will also take a sizeable load off the busy Rajiv Chowk interchange station.
Flagging off a train operated by a woman driver on this route from Mandi House Station at 9.30 am, Naidu later himself took a ride on the train along with DMRC Managing Director Mangu Singh and other senior officials. The two stations have been commissioned after a delay of nearly three months since the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) had claimed them as ‘ready’. However, according to the original plan, the two stations were scheduled to be commissioned in October.
This section is an extension of Violet line and is expected to decongest Rajiv Chowk station as commuters of Badarpur-Central Secretariat line bound for Noida, Vaishali and Dwarka will be able to change trains at Mandi House without changing trains twice at Central Secretariat and Rajiv Chowk. Presently Rajiv Chowk station handles over five lakh passengers everyday. The daily ridership at Mandi House in 2016 is expected to be 1.35 lakh.
Trains on the Mandi House-Central Secretariat section will run at a frequency of 3.25 minutes. The new stations Janpath and Mandi House are equipped with token vending machines and add-value cards readers besides other facilities for passengers. The service will cater to some 70,000 additional commuters and ease pressure off the Rajiv Chowk station that hosts lakhs of passengers daily.
This section is part of the 9.37-km long Central Secretariat to Kashmere Gate line, which is an extension of the Badarpur corridor (22-km) of Phase II. It comprises three stations — Central Secretariat, Janpath and Mandi House — completed in a span of 36 months within the stipulated cost.
“I feel very proud that DMRC has started the Mandi House to Central Secretariat Metro rail today. I congratulate Delhi Metro authorities, Delhi Governments and all the workers and those who made this work successful. This is one of the important steps the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has taken since 2002 for improving the life of the people of the nation Capital,” Naidu said, during his ride, adding, “Metro services combined with other efficient modes of transport will reduce hardship of urban travel. One of the major challenges is management of urbanisation.”