The Kashmere Gate Metro Station is going to become the biggest inter-change point of the Delhi Metro once the 5.17-km-long Heritage Line becomes operational.
The station will connect three lines: Violet Line (Escort Mujesar-ITO), Red Line (Dilshad Garden-Rithala) and Yellow Line (Huda City Centre-Samaypur Badli).
However, city dwellers will have to wait till November until they get to take the Heritage Line as trial runs on the corridor, including inspection by the CMRS, is going to take three months.
The underground section will have four stations: ITO (operational), Delhi Gate, Jama Masjid, Lal Quila and Kashmere Gate.
The section is called the ‘Heritage Line’ as it passes through various historical landmarks of Old Delhi.
3D artwork
In a first, artwork in the section will have three-dimensional panels depicting the glory of the bygone era.
The Lal Quila Metro Station will have two 3D panels. The first panel will show Red Fort in a sequence of spaces that one would experience walking around the monument entering from the Lahori Gate.
The centre of the panel will present Red Fort as an elevation in two halves – one showing the actual picture and the other, a rendition of the night silhouette. A vertically mounted model of the whole complex with reference to scales has also been incorporated to give an idea of the size of the fort.
Various periods in the life of Red Fort have been depicted through lithographs and pictures picked from Mughal, British and early days of independent India. The second panel mainly focuses on ‘Royalty’ - the lifestyle and grandeur of the inhabitants of the fort built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan. It also gives a peek into the food, clothing, jewellery, warfare, art and education of the Mughal dynasty.
The artwork at Kashmere Gate Station will touch upon the attributes of the city in the later parts of its existence, primarily colonial influences.
Kashmere Gate
“The artwork at Kashmere Gate tries to capture the uniqueness of the transformation of the city from one style to the other. The overlays in the form of gateways and arches will represent the architectural elements as it would have existed then and as it exists today. Structures like the Mutiny Tower, St. James Church, and Nicholas Cemetery are also displayed,” said Anuj Dayal, executive director (corporate communications), DMRC.
The installations at Jama Masjid Station will focus on places of worship in the imperial city of Shahjahanabad.
“Panel one is dedicated to Jama Masjid including its architectural elements like arches, minarets, jharokas and domes. The second panel shows other places of worship like the Jain temple, two Sunehri Masjids, Gurudwara Sheesh Ganj Sahib, the Fatehpuri mosque and Akhbarbadi Masjid,” said Mr. Dayal.
Delhi Gate
Artwork at the Delhi Gate Station will give commuters a glimpse of the Walled City. While the first panel is about famous streets of Old Delhi – Chawri Bazaar, Phool Mandi and Paranthe Wali Gali, the second one starts with extruded Nolli plan of the city of Shahjahanabad. It also includes existing and lost landmarks of Old Delhi like Bhagirath Palace (Begum Samru Palace), Chunamal's Haveli and clock tower, which no longer exists.
After the commissioning of this section, the entire 9.37-km-long Central Secretariat – Kashmere Gate section will be operational and become a part of the 43.40-km-long Escorts Mujesar – Kashmere Gate (Violet Line) corridor. The corridor is also being extended to Ballabhgarh from Escorts Mujesar (3.2 kilometres).
