The 25.6 kilometre-long Janakpuri West-Kalkaji Mandir stretch of the Delhi Metro is all set to be inaugurated on Monday. The new corridor will bring domestic terminal of the city airport on the DMRC network and reduce the travel time between Noida and Gurugram by at least 30 minutes.
The 25.6-kilometre stretch, comprising 16 stations, will be the longest segment to be opened in the Delhi Metro’s Phase III network.
Once the stretch is opened, it will take the total length of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) network to 277 km, officials said.
Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs (Independent Charge) Hardeep Singh Puri and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will inaugurate the corridor on Monday at 4.30 pm at the Nehru Enclave metro station, they said.
At 29 metres, the five-level new Hauz Khas station is the deepest metro station in the entire network and an engineering landmark as its tunnel goes beneath that of the old station's.
Hauz Khas (with Yellow Line) and Janakpuri West (with Blue Line) stations are the interchange facilities on this corridor, besides the existing Kalkaji Mandir station (with Violet Line).
Passenger services on the segment, which has 16 stations — 14 underground, two elevated — will begin from Tuesday at 6 am from the Kalkaji Mandir and Janakpuri West stations simultaneously.
With the opening of this stretch, the entire Janakpuri West-Botanical Garden Magenta Line corridor, covering the city's arterial Outer Ring Road, will become operational. Terminal 1 of the IGI Airport has also been connected to the metro network through this corridor, with an eponymous station on it.
The Kalkaji Mandir-Botanical Garden stretch of the Magenta Line was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 25 last year.
Now, with the opening of the remainder of the Magenta Line, the travel time between Noida and Gurgaon will shrink by at least 30 minutes.
"After the inauguration of this vital link, the approximate time to commute between HUDA City Centre (end of Yellow Line on Gurgaon side) and Botanical Garden (on Blue Line in Noida) stations will be about 50 minutes," DMRC officials said.
"Presently, a metro journey from HUDA City Centre to Botanical Garden takes about an hour and a half with the interchange at Rajiv Chowk station," they said.
After the Magenta line fully opens, the corridor will operate with 24 trains which will gradually increase to 26 apart from the operating reserves. The frequency will be 5 minutes and 15 seconds during peak hours through the whole section.
The Delhi Metro is also touting the Magenta Line as a 'Knowledge Corridor' as four major universities of the Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR), have been connected on it.
The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) are the institutions which will get metro connectivity with the opening of the new corridor and Jamia Milia Islamia University in south Delhi and Amity University in Noida have already got metro connectivity with the opening of the Botanical Garden Kalkaji Mandir section in December last year.
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