Delhi joined select metro club in 2018; DMRC achieved new 'highs', 'depths'
New Delhi: Delhi Metro, the capital's lifeline, shrunk distances and achieved milestones with the opening of seven sections, including its smallest and deepest stations in the year gone by, as it zoomed into a select club of metros globally.
The last section made operational last year on its last day –the 9.7-km Lajpat Nagar-Mayur Vihar Pocket 1 corridor of the Pink Line, directly connected south and east Delhi on the rapid transit network, taking the total operational length to 327 km with 236 stations. But, it was the opening of the fifth corridor last year, in October –the 17.8-km Shiv Vihar-Trilokpuri Sanjay Lake section of the Pink Line –that brought the proud moment for the city metro, as it put Delhi among a select group of cities such as London, Beijing and Shanghai that have an operational metro network of over 300-km.
The year also saw Delhi Metro and its riders literally reaching dizzying heights, giving passengers a bird's eye view of the sprawling city from a vantage point as high as the top of a seven-storeyed building.
The feat was achieved as part of the opening of the over 20 km-long Majlis Park- Durgabai Deshmukh South Campus corridor of the Pink Line, connected the north and south campuses of the Delhi University for the first time, on to the metro network.
Rising at 23.6 m in busy Dhaula Kaun area, this scaled the highest point in the network of the mass rapid transit system that has shrunk distances and connected heart of the city to nondescript locations. But it wasn't the only highest point that Delhi Metro reached last year, but in an engineering accomplishment, also built its deepest station on a new 24.82-km Magenta Line corridor spanning Kalakaji Mandir and Janakpuri West, which was opened in May.
At 29 m, the five-level new Hauz Khas station on the Magenta Line became the deepest station on the Delhi Metro network, whose tunnel was bored below the existing one on the Yellow Line.
The old station at busy Hauz Khas (HUDA City Centre-Samayapur Badli or Yellow Line) is 17 m deep. For the construction of the new station, it was not possible to go below the existing station, as the foundation is 32 m and there is the foundation of the flyover on Outer Ring Road also, a senior DMRC official said.
At the inauguration of the Lajpat Nagar-Mayur Vihar Pocket 1 corridor of the Pink Line on December 31, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Housing and Urban Affairs, Hardeep Singh Puri had lauded the metro, saying, "This is the seventh time, operation of a metro line is being commenced this year, which is truly a great achievement. The work on the Phase-III of the DMRC has been almost completed with nearly 96 km of it being made operational this year."
