Metro set to link Delhi University campuses by March, cut travel time by 30 minutes
NORTHSOUTH LINK With one interchange, students will cover distance in 35 mins
NEWDELHI: Travel time between Delhi University’s South and North Campus is set to be reduced by 30 minutes as the first section of the longest line of Delhi Metro from Shiv Vihar to Majlis Park, along the Ring Road, is likely to be operational by March next year.
Work on the Durgabai Deshmukh South Campus station is completed and it will be one of the major stations on the corridor, officials from Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) said.
Once the line is operational in March 2018, a journey from South Campus to Vishwavidyalaya will take around 35 minutes with an interchange at Azadpur.
Currently, students from South Campus either go to Dhaula Kuan on the Airport Line or board the Yellow Line from AIIMS or INA stations, around six kilometres away.
South Campus students have long-complained about the lack of easy Metro connectivity in their area, which makes commuting a challenge.
Once completed, the Majlis Park-Shiv Vihar corridor will be 59km long. It will primarily cater to the Ring Road and will form a ring of Metro connectivity crossing all the other operational Metro lines. Full signalling trials on this section have been in progress since September 2017.
“Around 12,000 passengers are expected to use the South Campus station. By 2021, the figure is expected to reach 15,000. The station will be a major transport hub for students as many colleges of the South Campus of Delhi University are located nearby. The residential areas of RK Puram, Satyaniketan etc will also benefit from this station. Tourists staying in nearby five-star hotel hubs can also walk to the Metro station,” a DMRC spokesperson said.
One of the unique features of the station is that it is located immediately after the highest point of Delhi Metro. Before approaching the station from the Majlis Park side, the train crosses Dhaula Kuan at a height of 23.6 metres (as high as a seven-storey building). From the highest point, the train will come down to 14-metre height of the South Campus station.
“To facilitate this, the piers have been placed in a progressively descending order so that the descent of the track is gradual and not steep. On the road also, the piers had to be strategically placed so that there was no harm to the grade separator at Dhaula Kuan,” the spokesperson added.
The line is planned to be opened in stages from March 2018 (except Trilokpuri to Mayur Vihar Pkt-1 section due to land issue at Trilokpuri).
Work on the section from Majlis Park to Durgabai Deshmukh South Campus is expected to be completed by December 2017 and sections from Durgabai Deshmukh South Campus to Mayur Vihar Pkt-1 and Trilokpuri to Shiv Vihar are expected to be completed by March.
This portion will be the first of the Pink Line, which will be opened for passengers.
This 20-km-long stretch is extremely important from the point of view of enhancing connectivity along the arterial Ring Road. This section has 12 stations (8 elevated and 4 underground) including four interchange stations — Durga Bai Deshmukh South Campus, Rajouri Garden, Netaji Subhash Place and Azadpur.
With the help of a 920-metrelong foot overbridge (FOB), the new station is being connected with the Dhaula Kuan Metro station of the Airport Line.
The FOB, will be the first ever in the Delhi Metro network to have travelators. There will be 22 travelators along the length of the FOB. This FOB will be constructed so that passengers will not have to come out of the Metro system to board another train.
“Signalling trials on this section is a significant step ahead towards the eventual commissioning of the stretch, since signalling trails are started after the completion of all civil and ancillary works,” the spokesperson added.