In about two years, reaching Delhi’s domestic airport is no longer going to be a long and arduous journey. Travellers will be able to take the Metro to reach the Capital’s Terminal 1D airport as the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has decided to open a dedicated station in the area. The station which would be called Terminal 1-Indira Gandhi International Airport is expected to be operational by March 2016.
The station will be a part of the 40-km long proposed Janakpuri West-Kalindi Kunj-Botanical Garden corridor and will connect the domestic airport directly from South, West and East Delhi areas. Besides, those in North and Central Delhi can come to the Hauz Khas station on the existing Gurgaon line and thereafter take the train to the airport. The station is expected to cater over 66,405 commuters on a daily basis which is slated to go up to 97,184 passengers per day by 2021.
The good news for travellers is that they would be charged the normal Metro rates for the same ride, unlike the airport express line. For the convenience of senior citizens and differently-abled, the tunnels will also have travelators for easy movement. The lifts and escalators installed in this station would also be of high capacity wherein a lift would carry as many as 26 people at a time. The station would be constructed 18 metres below the ground level and will have an island platform in which passengers will be able to board the metro from either side.
A section of the corridor from Kalindi Kunj to Botanical Garden falls in Uttar Pradesh for which the DMRC has also obtained in-principle approval from the UP Government. The station will be one out of 100 stations dotted along the Delhi Metro Phase III project. The new corridor will be connecting three operational Metro lines namely, Noida-Dwarka Sector-21 (line 3), Jahangirpuri-Huda City Center (line 2) and Central Secretariat-Badarpur (line 6). However, there will be four interchange stations at Janakpuri and Botanical Garden on line 3 and Hauz Khas and Kalkaji stations on line 2 and line 6 respectively. line 3 will have two interchange stations wherefrom commuters can take the metro to reach airport.