Metro to chug into more of west Delhi soon

New Delhi: For lakhs of west Delhi residents, Blue Line — connecting Dwarka Sector 21 with Noida City Centre/Vaishali — is the only Metro link with the rest of the city. To take any other Metro line, they have to travel till Rajiv Chowk. However, this is going to change in six months with the opening of the Janakpuri West-Kalkaji section of the Magenta Line.

This line, along with the Pink Line that goes to Rajouri Garden, will put west Delhi firmly on the Metro map for the first time. Not only will the Majenta Line cover densely populated areas of west Delhi like Palam, Dabri, Mahavir Enclave, Sagarpur, Dashrath Puri, etc, it will also bring that part of the city closer to the domestic airport, south Delhi, Gurgaon and Faridabad. “

At present, west Delhi commuters have no option but to travel till Rajiv Chowk to change trains. When the Magenta Line opens by March 2018, they can directly go to Hauz Khas in south Delhi or take a train to Gurgaon,” said a senior Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) official. “The commuters will save at least 25 minutes of travel time when the line opens,” he said.

“The entire Magenta Line will also act as a feeder for the presently operational Blue Line as both the originating sta- tions of this corridor – Janakpuri West and Botanical Garden – are important Vinod Nagar west Delhi residents. Commuters will be able to change trains at the Rajouri Garden Metro station to reach northwest Delhi, north Delhi and south Delhi areas such as Sarojini Nagar and INA — an interchange station for the Yellow Line (Samaypur Badli-HUDA City Centre).

“The Magenta Line will cover areas that are only connected by buses at present. We expect it to reduce congestion on the Palam flyover, which gets choked during peak hours. The corridor has the same alignment as the flyover,” the official said.

The line will also go to the domestic Terminal 1 of the Delhi airport that, at present, can’t be accessed by Metro directly and commuters have to take a shuttle service from the Airport Express Line.

The Metro official also said that constructing an underground Metro corridor under congested parts of west Delhi was a challenge for DMRC. “We had to be extra cautious as we were tunnelling below densely populated areas and most dwellings in these areas don’t have very strong foundations,” he said. “The tunnel is also close to the foundations of the Palam flyover and Metro’s Line 3,” he added.