Delhi Metro’s Pink Line is set to commence operations with the stretch between Majlis Park- Durgabhai Deshmukh South Campus likely to be thrown open for public use later this week.
The Commissioner for Metro Rail Safety (CMRS) completed inspection of the 20.6km long Majlis Park- Durgabhai Deshmukh South Campus section of line 7 (Pink Line) of Phase III, Metro officials said on Sunday. The start of the line will connect north and northwest part of the city with the southern part of the city and reduce travel time for residents of west and north Delhi to the airport.
Senior Metro officials said Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) is likely to receive the nod of CMRS within a few days after which the line will be opened for public. The section has 12 stations including four interchange stations: Azadpur, Netaji Subhash Place, Rajouri Garden and South campus.
The trains running on Pink line will cross Dhaula Kuan at a height of 23.6 metre (as high as a seven storey building) to reach South Campus from Majlis Park.
Once fully operational, the line will connect all the six lines of DMRC. With 10 interchange stations, the line will reduce passenger traffic from the existing interchange stations, especially at Rajiv Chowk, that is one of the most crowded stations in the city.
“Currently, four interchange stations will be operational and will help decongest the Rajiv Chowk station. The current section will connect with yellow line (Samaipur Badli-HUDA City Center) at Azadpur, Red line (Rithala-Dilshad Garden) at Netaji Subhash Place, Blue line (Dwarka Sector 21-Noida/Vaishali) at Rajouri Garden and Airport line at Dhaula Kuan. The line is constructed in a way that it will decongest all the other lines. The line will come to northeast via west, south and east Delhi,” said a DMRC official.
The South Campus station will convert into an interchange station by June as the Foot Over Bridge, connecting the two stations, is not yet ready.
According to DMRC, the crisscrossing of Phase-III lines with the existing lines at many places will lead to emergence of several interchange stations, thus, shortening the distance between two different parts of the city by upto 15 km at some locations.
The Pink Line is also going to be the longest line of its network.
In a four-part series on Delhi Metro’s Pink Line, commuters will take a look at all the four major Metro stations — Azadpur, Netaji Subhash Place, Rajouri Garden and South Campus — of the Pink Line.