Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday inaugurated the Botanical Garden-Kalkaji Mandir section of the Magenta line, which was thrown open to the public at 5 pm the same day. Initially, trains will operate at frequency of 5.14 minutes on this section. Modi exhorted people to use the public transport to cut import on petroleum, and said travelling on a metro train should be a “prestige issue”.
The Magenta line has brought it down travel time from Noida to South Delhi to 19 minutes, Until now, it used to take around 52 minutes. The stretch can ferry approximately 3.6 lakh commuters every day and help connect Noida with Faridabad through the Violet line (Escorts Mujesar-Kashmere Gate). The entire Magenta line will become operational by March, 2018.
The Botanical Garden Station has been developed as the Metro’s first-ever inter-change station outside Delhi’s boundaries as it was already one of the stations on the Dwarka-Noida City Centre Blue line. The other stations on this section are Kalindi Kunj, Jasola Vihar Shaheen Bagh, Jamia Millia Islamia, Okhla Vihar, Sukhdev Vihar, Okhla NSIC and Kalkaji Mandir. While the Kalkaji Mandir station is underground, all the other stations are elevated.
With this launch, the total length of the metro network in Delhi-NCR has increased to 228 kilometres. Delhi Metro’s first stretch was declared open by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on December 24, 2002.
Modi was accompanied by Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri and Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) chief Mangu Singh during the metro ride.
The PM boarded the train at Botanical Garden, which is the terminal station of the Magenta line, at 1.05 pm and alighted at the Okhla Bird Sanctuary station. It was a four-minute journey. Both the stations are in Noida.
The other end of the line, for now, will be South Delhi’s Kalkaji Mandir. However, by April, the entire 38-km corridor, stretching till Janakpuri West, is scheduled to be functional.
From the metro station, Modi proceeded to Noida Sector 125 Rally Ground at the Amity University, where he was scheduled to address a public rally.
Some features of the new line include platform screen doors, which are currently there only on the Airport Express line, and new generation trains, which can run on an unattended mode or without operators. However, the DMRC has announced that for the time being, the trains will be operated manually.
Ten trains would operate on the new line, while two more would be kept in the reserve, one each at the Kalkaji Mandir and Botanical Garden stations, the DMRC said.
The coaches of the trains running on this line will have electronic information display boards, power-charging facilities, including directly through USB ports, and seats of different colours.
The new, energy-efficient trains would save about 20 per cent energy as compared to the existing coaches, the DMRC said.