The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation will start trial runs on the first section of Phase III between Central Secretariat and Mandi House from December 30.
Work on the underground stretch of the Central Secretariat-Kashmere Gate line is almost complete and may be opened for commuter operations by March end next year after trial runs.
Decongestion This will lead to decongestion of the busy Rajiv Chowk metro station as the Noida and Vaishali-bound commuters on the Badarpur-Central Secretariat line will be able to change trains at Mandi House without changing trains twice at Central Secretariat and Rajiv Chowk.
“The trial runs are being conducted six months ahead of the originally planned date of October 2014. It will take 36 months to complete the project. The trial runs are expected to continue for a couple of months. This has been possible because of the advanced pace of construction including civil engineering, track fitting, electrification, signalling and telecommunications,” said DMRC Managing Director Mangu Singh.
The Mandi House station will be the first interchange station of metro’s Phase III. At present, the station is being expanded to cater to additional passengers. This section will provide interchange facility at two stations -- Central Secretariat and Mandi House.
About 70,000 new passengers are expected to use the station by 2016, DMRC Corporate Communications Executive Director Anuj Dayal said.
During the trial runs, many aspects of the functioning will be rigorously tested, including the response of the train at different speeds, braking of the train and interconnection with the Operations Control Centre.
The behaviour of the track system and the Over Head Electrification will be checked repeatedly during the trials, Mr. Dayal added.
