Now, Kalkaji to Botanical Garden in 19 minutes

Noida/New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the much awaited stretch of the Delhi Metro’s Magenta Line on Monday afternoon, cutting down the travel time between Noida and parts of South Delhi by more than 30 minutes.

With this launch, the total length of the Metro network in Delhi-NCR has increased to 228-km. Delhi Metro’s first stretch was declared open by then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on December 24, 2002.

On Monday, PM Modi launched the 12-km stretch of the Magenta Line, a part of the Metro’s phase-III construction, with a ride between the Botanical Garden and Okhla Bird Sanctuary stations in Noida around 1 pm. The commercial services commenced on the line at 5 pm.

The other stations on this section are Kalindi Kunj, Jasola Vihar Shaheen Bagh, Jamia Millia Islamia, Okhla Vihar, Sukhdev Vihar, Okhla NSIC, and Kalkaji Mandir. While the Kalkaji Mandir station is underground, all the other stations are elevated.

PM Modi was accompanied by Uttar Pradesh governor Ram Naik, UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath, Union minister for housing and urban affairs Hardeep Singh Puri, and Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) chief Mangu Singh during the Metro ride.

The other end of the line, for now, will be South Delhi’s Kalkaji Mandir. However, by April the entire 38-km corridor, stretching up to Janakpuri West, is scheduled to be functional.

With this launch, Botanical Garden became the first interchange station of the DMRC located outside Delhi’s boundaries as it was already one of the stations on the Dwarka-Noida City Centre Blue Line.

Through this station, the commuters will be able to travel from Noida to various parts of South Delhi and the domestic terminal of the Indira Gandhi International airport when the entire Magenta Line becomes operational by March, 2018. Until now, it used to take around 52 minutes to travel from Noida to South Delhi. The Magenta Line has brought it down to 19 minutes.

Some features of the new line include platform screen doors, which are currently available only on the Airport Express Line, and new generation trains which can run unattended or without operators. However, the DMRC has announced that for the time being, the trains will be operated manually. Ten trains would operate on the new line while two more would be kept in the reserve.