Friday will bring Gurgaon closer to Delhi. The Delhi Metro rail service between the national Capital and the bustling suburb will begin in the afternoon after the Central Secretariat-Qutub Minar corridor is inaugurated by Union Urban Development Minister S. Jaipal Reddy.
The stretch, one of most awaited sections of the Delhi Metro railway, is part of the Jehangirpuri-HUDA City Centre line. The 45-km line is also the longest of the network.
A 12.53-km section between Central Secretariat and Qutub Minar will connect with the already-in-operation Qutub Minar-HUDA City Centre line. This section with nine underground stations will pass through several congested South Delhi areas. It will cover Udyog Bhawan, Race Course, Jor Bagh, INA, All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, Green Park, Hauz Khas, Malviya Nagar and Saket and will have one elevated station at Qutab Minar.
After the inauguration and flagging off of the ceremonial train, the line will be thrown open to the public from 3 p.m. The entire line running from HUDA City Centre in Gurgaon to Jehangirpuri in Delhi will consist of 25 km of underground tunnels and stations apart from 20 km of elevated section, covering a total distance of 45 km in 80 minutes. There will be 34 stations on this line out of which 20 will be underground while 14 are elevated. Expected to draw a heavy rush of commuters, this line will have 36 to 40 trains running through the day.
For commuters who travel between the suburbs and the national Capital, the new service is expected to not just bring down travel time but also help save on fuel bills.
“When the new line becomes operational, it will take less than an hour for commuters to travel between Gurgaon and Rajiv Chowk and the entire 45 km from Jehangirpuri to Gurgaon will be covered in just over 80 minutes,” said a DMRC spokesperson.
The line that had an opening date of August was awarded the safety clearance certificate by the Commissioner of Railway Safety only recently.
The Central Secretariat-HUDA City Centre line, built at a total cost of Rs.3,720 crore, is expected to add over 3.4 lakh people to the metro system by 2011. It will cost Rs.29 for a passenger to travel from HUDA City Centre to Jehangirpuri.
