New Delhi, Aug 6 (FN Bureau) The connecting link between Mayur Vihar Pocket-1 and Trilokpuri – Sanjay Lake Metro stations of Delhi Metro’s Pink Line was inaugurated on Friday by Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, via video conferencing. The passenger services on this section commenced at 1500 hrs. While the presently operational sections of the Pink Line were made functional in 2019, this small stretch got delayed due to the unavailability of encumbrance-free land. After following the due process of law, the land was acquired and R&R (Rehabilitation and Resettlement) of Project Affected Persons was done for commencement and completion of construction work. Partial access was available in October 2019 and full access in December 2020.
With the opening of this important connection, the 59-kilometer long Pink Line will seamlessly connect the northern and eastern fringes of Delhi with important markets, hospitals, transport hubs and prominent residential areas of south and central Delhi. The construction happened on the missing link of a 290 metres between Trilokpuri – Sanjay Lake and Mayur Vihar Pocket 1 stations of the Pink Line. Important transport hubs such as Nizamuddin Railway Station, Sarai Kale Khan ISBT, Anand Vihar Railway Station, Anand Vihar ISBT, Delhi Cantt. Railway Station, and prominent markets like Dilli Haat – INA, Sarojini Nagar and Lajpat Nagar will get direct connectivity through this corridor. This corridor will further be extended from Majlis Park to Maujpur in Phase – IV, making it the longest single Metro corridor in India at approximately 70 kilometers. After completion of Phase – IV, the Pink Line will also become the only Ring Corridor of Metro in the country. The construction of this stretch was a challenging task for DMRC as the work was repeatedly hampered by the pandemic induced lockdowns and issues such as non-availability of workforce. Completion of this work was a significant achievement because the civil construction on this stretch continued despite the hurdles and concluded within the set deadline. DMRC is also developing an internal road below the viaduct at Trilokpuri which will connect the Vasundhara Road and Trilokpuri Road. The road will be 140 metres in length. This will help in decongesting the area and will ease the traffic scenario.
With the opening of this section, the Delhi Metro network will now become about 390 kilometres long with 285 stations (including the Noida – Greater Noida Metro Corridor and Rapid Metro, Gurugram). On the occasion, Puri said, ‘The metro rail system has delivered a world class transportation system to our citizens. Delhi Metro has been a trailblazer, in that sense.’ It is not easy to plan and execute a massive infrastructure project like the Delhi Metro system, he added. He said that under the visionary and dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Metro system in the country has seen massive surge in the expansion of the network. The Minister explained that the inauguration of today’s 850.8 metres stretch extension might be small from the point of view of network length, but from the perspective of providing enhanced connectivity to people, this connection will play an extremely crucial role.
The missing link in Trilokpuri is now being bridged to allow seamless and end to end travel through Delhi Metro’s longest corridor of 59 kilometers between Majlis Park and Shiv Vihar. Puri said presently 721 km of Metro network is operational in 18 cities and further, construction work is presently undergoing on 1,058 km route length of new Metro network in 27 cities. Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gehlot, Secretary, Housing and Urban Affairs, Durga Shanker Mishra and MD, Metro, Mangu Singh were also present on the occasion.