NEW DELHI: A short missing link on the Pink Line of Delhi Metro will soon be thrown open for traffic as civil works of the stretch have been completed, said Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on Friday.
Once opened, the stretch will physically bridge the longstanding gap on the 58 km-long corridor. The Majlis Park-Shiv Vihar corridor or the Pink Line spans 38 stations.
However, a small portion in east Delhi’s Trilokpuri area had proved a bottleneck for DMRC for a long time due to which the line remained disjointed for some distance there. The gap in the line was expected to be plugged by September 2020 but it had got delayed due to the pandemic, the sources had said early October, adding that the total length of the stretch which “remains to be linked is 289 metre”.
The construction of Pink Line was delayed due to land acquisition problems and the entire line was inaugurated in 2019 except a 1.3-km-long stretch. Once operational, the stretch will connect two ends of the Pink Line and provide seamless connectivity. DMRC said that to expedite the work on this section, it adopted a “unique” construction method by using steel girders instead of the conventional concrete ones.
“Construction of concrete girders would have required the establishment of a casting yard and it would not have been feasible to set up a casting yard for such a small stretch within a short duration of time. Therefore, steel girders were installed on this stretch,” said a DMRC spokesperson. An official said the stretch shall be operational immediately after receiving mandatory clearances.
Once completed, this section will provide connectivity to transport hubs such as Nizamuddin Railway Station, Sarai Kale Khan ISBT, Anand Vihar Railway Station, Anand Vihar ISBT, Delhi Cantonment Railway Station while prominent markets like Dilli Haat - INA, Sarojini Nagar and Lajpat Nagar will get direct connectivity.
This corridor will further be extended from Majlis Park to Maujpur in Phase – IV, making it the longest single Metro corridor in the country at approximately 70 kilometres. After completion of the Phase – IV, the Pink Line will also become the only Ring Corridor of Metro in the country. DMRC is also developing an internal road below the viaduct at Trilokpuri which will connect Vasundhara Road and Trilokpuri Road.
Track laying commenced
Track laying and other ancillary works have commenced on the stretch between Mayur Vihar Pocket 1 and Trilokpuri Sanjay Lake following the completion of civil works