Heritage Line now open to public

New Delhi: The Delhi Metro made a major foray into the ‘Walled City’ of Shahjahanabad in the national capital as the ITO-Kashmere Gate ‘Heritage Line’ was thrown open to public on Sunday. It has three stations — Delhi Gate, Jama Masjid, and Red Fort. The new line, which is essentially an extension of the Violet Line that runs between Faridabad and ITO presently, will take considerable load off the Chandni Chowk and Chawri Bazar stations of the Yellow Line.

The new line was flagged off by Union minister of urban development M Venkaiah Naidu and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal through video conferencing at Metro Bhawan. The residents of this densely populated area will have a direct access to commercial centres such as Connaught Place, Janpath, offices in Central Secretariat, and the satellite town of Faridabad.

Shahjahanabad is also a spiritual landscape and it reflects every major faith of India. On one hand it has Jama Masjid, Fatehpuri Masjid, and Sunehri Masjid and on other it also has Shivalayas of the Katra Neel. It is also houses St Stephens Church and Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib apart from Digambar Jain Lal Mandir.

The Jama Masjid station of the Heritage Line will connect Metro commuters to one of the largest mosques in India and two of its gates would also open to wholesale markets of Meena Bazaar and Daryaganj. This line also connects to Asia’s largest wholesale spice market, Khari Baoli. All the four stations have been decorated with panels and artworks.