From its humble beginning in December 2002 with a corridor of just 8.2 km spanning six stations on the Red Line, the Delhi Metro has grown into a network of over 390 km in 2022, completing an eventful journey of 20 years of operations. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation today operates multiple corridors in the national capital and neighbouring cities.
Delhi Metro had begun its commercial operations on December 25, 2002, a day after then-prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had inaugurated DMRC's first stretch, spanning 8.2 kilometres from Shahdara to Tis Hazari, with just six stations. To mark the two decades of operations, Delhi Metro is slated to run a special train on Saturday that was flagged off by Vajpayee on December 24, 2002.
"It is an exciting milestone for the DMRC, and the special run of the six-coach train will take place today from Kashmere Gate station to Welcome station on the Red Line," a senior official said. A special exhibition commemorating 20 years of operations will also be opened on Saturday at Welcome station. A day after the inauguration of the first-ever corridor in 2002, the rush was so “massive” that authorities had to issue “paper tickets” to handle the flow of passengers, officials had told PTI earlier.
The introduction of the state-of-the-art rapid transit system was such a novel mode of transport in the city then that many people believed it was only there temporarily and thus the DMRC had to issue advertisements in newspapers to tell people that it was “here to stay”, they had said. DMRC trains, on average, run 400-600 km and 16-18 hours a day, officials said.
The DMRC network's current span is nearly 392 km with 286 stations (including the Noida–Greater Noida Metro Corridor and Rapid Metro, Gurgaon). Rare images of the very first piling work done in the national capital for building Delhi Metro and old newspaper clippings are among the archival documents which have been put up on display as part of a permanent exhibition at Kashmere Gate station of the network last December by the DMRC.
The exhibition -- 'Tracing Delhi Metro's Journey' -- has been launched to mark the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation entering into the 20th year of its operations, the officials said.
The Red Line itself has now extended on both sides, to Rithala in Delhi and New Bus Stand (Shaheed Sthal) in Ghaziabad.ALSO READ | Delhi Metro introduces first-ever set of two 8-coach trains on Red Line
