Residents of East Delhi and neighbouring Ghaziabad can hope to enjoy metro rail comfort soon with the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation beginning trial runs on Saturday on the upcoming new Yamuna Bank-Anand Vihar section, the fourth line which will be added to the new age transport network.
The trial runs began at 10 a.m. from Laxmi Nagar station and one round trip up to Preet Vihar station was conducted “successfully” in the morning, said a DMRC spokesman said. The trial runs from Preet Vihar to Anand Vihar will begin soon.
The section, which is likely to be opened by this month-end or early January, is expected to draw huge crowds given the number of people who depend on private modes of transport to reach the Capital. Since Anand Vihar is located on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border, people from Ghaziabad and other parts of that state may also use the metro to come to Delhi.
The Anand Vihar metro station has been planned as a major integrating terminal that will bring together three modes of public transport: the Delhi Metro, the Indian Railways, and the Inter-State Bus Terminus (ISBT).
Though DMRC projections show that over 1 lakh more people would start travelling by this line in the modern transport system by the year 2011, the number actually is expected to be much higher judging by the popularity of the recently commissioned Noida line. The line, which was thrown open to the public in mid-November, is a big hit with the commuters and the passenger rush exceeded even the Delhi Metro’s expectations.
