In a major relief to thousands of South Delhi-bound commuters, trial runs on the Central Secretariat to Mandi House stretch will commence from December 30. The construction work on the 3 km stretch, which is part of the upcoming Central Secretariat to Kashmere Gate corridor, is almost complete and is expected to be functional by end of March 2014, after trials.
The stretch — once operational — will provide another interchange station on the Delhi Metro network in the heart of the city. The Mandi House station will be the first interchange station of Delhi Metro’s Phase-III network.
With Mandi House station providing interchanging facilities, the burden on Rajiv Chowk station will be reduced by as much as 40 per cent by providing commuters a direct interchange to the Badarpur line.
“The opening of this stretch has been advanced by about six months. The commuters, on the Badarpur to Central Secretariat corridor, who are headed to Noida and Vaishali will be able to change trains at Mandi House without changing trains twice at Central Secretariat and Rajiv Chowk,” said spokesperson of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation.
The trial runs on the stretch are expected to continue for a couple of months.
“Works, including civil engineering, track-fitting, electrification, signalling and telecommunication, are in its advanced stage of completion and are being fast-tracked so trial runs could begin by December 30 to facilitate the opening of the section for public use by March 2014, six months ahead of the
original planned date of October 2014,” added the spokesperson.
The Mandi House station will be the interchange point for line 6 (Central Secretariat-Badarpur), line 2 (Jahangirpuri-HUDA City Centre) and line 3 (Noida City Centre-Dwarka Sector 21).
Approximately 70,000 new passengers are expected to use the station by 2016. The entire corridor will be thrown open for public by December 2015.