Delhi Cabinet nod to phase-IV of Delhi Metro

The Delhi Cabinet on Friday gave its nod to the fourth phase of Delhi Metro which will add 8.5 lakh new passengers to its network, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia announced here.

The Cabinet meeting was chaired by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the Secretariat. The fourth phase will have six new routes with a total length of around 103 km, and will be completed in six years at a cost of around Rs 50,000 crore, he told reporters here.

“DMRC (Delhi Metro Rail Corporation) will submit a progress report of the project every month to the Delhi cabinet,” Sisodia said. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, in a tweet, said the decision will “go a long way” in reducing congestion and pollution in the city. “A big decision by Cabinet,” he tweeted.

With the completion of 103-km-long Phase IV, the total length of the Metro corridor in the city will cross the 450-km mark. Its Detailed Project Report (DPR) was cleared in June 2016. The mega project, as part of which 72 new stations will be built, will cost over Rs 50,000 crore, which is to be borne equally by the state and the Centre, Deputy Chief Minister Sisodia said.

“The next clearance has to be given by the Union government. Once it is done, work will start. The project will come up within six years of initiation of construction work,” Sisodia said. The proposed corridors are Rithala — Narela (21.73 km) Inderlok Indraprastha (12.58 km), Tughlakabad Aerocity (20.20 km), Lajpat Nagar Saket G-Block (7.96 km), Janakpuri (west) — RK Ashram (28.92 km) and Mukundpur-Maujpur (12.54 km).

While as per the revised DPR, the Tughlakabad line was to stretch till Terminal 1 of airport, the proposal cleared by the Cabinet says it will end a station before. Of its total length, 

67 km would be elevated and the rest underground, Sisodia said, adding that the mass rapid transit’s ridership will increase by about 8.5 lakh once it is operational.