Delhi Metro on Friday added another five km to its network as it threw open the Sarita Vihar-Badarpur section of the transit system.
The inaugural run was conducted at 8 a.m. in the stretch comprising three elevated stations -- Mohan Estate, Tughlakabad and Badarpur.
The opening of the stretch will be of great benefit to the commuters of south Delhi localities such as Mohan Estate, Tughlakabad and Kalindi Kunj as well as the satellite town of Faridabad in Haryana, which is adjacent to Badarpur.
The footfall of the entire Central Secretariat-Badarpur corridor is expected to increase by another one lakh after the opening of the section.
Currently, the total footfall on the Central Secretariat-Sarita Vihar corridor is approximately 1.25 lakh.
Four additional standard gauge trains with a peak hour frequency of four minutes will be pressed into service, thereby, increasing the total number of trains to 20 for catering to the increased rush on the corridor.
Presently, 16 trains are providing Metro services to the commuters between the Central Secretariat and Sarita Vihar corridor.
With the opening of this stretch, the Central Secretariat-Badarpur corridor will now be 20.16 kilometres long with 16 Metro stations.
The DMRC will now have a total operational Metro network of approximately 161 kilometres with 135 metro stations.
