The Central Secretariat-Mandi House section of the Delhi Metro’s Phase-III is all ready to be opened but is yet to be certified by the Commissioner for Metro Rail Safety, DMRC sources said on Monday.
“The station is complete. Even the artworks have been installed. But we have not heard from the CMRS about the inspection,” said the source.
The DMRC had applied for the certification a few weeks ago. “We only learnt from news reports that the inspection will be done in a week,” the source added.
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While civil work on the station has been complete since last month, the inauguration of this first section of the Phase III of the Delhi Metro Project seems to have been put off due to the Lok Sabha elections. The DMRC sources believe the station would be opened for Delhiites after the polls.
One of the stations on this section is Mandi House, which is on the Dwarka-Noida line. It is expected to become the next busiest inter-change station after Rajiv Chowk, with a ridership of 70,000. Both Mandi House and Janpath stations have been completed in all respects and the beautification works are in progress outside these.
Phase-III is the Metro’s longest one so far, with eight lines covering 130.12 km. Of that, the first one is the 9.25-km long Central Secretariat to Kashmere Gate line.
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The Metro’s current network is approximately 190-km-long, with Phase-I having 3 lines covering 65 km and Phase-II having 4 lines with 124.6 km.
Most of those who have worked on Phase III of the project will be hoping that the inauguration takes place with all the pomp associated with previous such occasions. While Phase I was inaugurated by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, his successor Manmohan Singh had inaugurated Phase II of the project.
They had both also travelled by the Metro following the inauguration and the services were thrown open to the general public only the following day.