Delhi Metro Phase-III: Longest stretch of Magenta Line becomes operational

Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs (Independent Charge) Hardeep Singh Puri and Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal formally flagged off the 25.6 km of the Janakpuri West-Kalkaji Mandir Metro corridor on 28 May 2018. With this, the entire 38.2 km stretch from Janakpuri West-Botanical Garden of Delhi Metro Phase-III Magenta Line became operational.

The inaugural train was flagged off from Nehru Enclave. This is the longest opened section of Delhi Metro Phase-III. The passenger services will commence at 6 am on 29 May 2018 from Kalkaji Mandir and Janakpuri West stations simultaneously.

On 25 December 2017, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Kalkaji Mandir-Botanical Garden stretch of Delhi Metro Phase-III. The 38.23 km long stretch of Botanical Garden-Janakpuri (West) corridor is also referred to as the ‘Magenta Line’. The Metro network with a total length of 135.4 km comprising six corridors is being developed by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRL). The Delhi Metro Phase-III will entail an investment of Rs 41,079 crore.

The 25.6 km section comprises 16 stations, of which 14 are underground and two are elevated (Sadar Bazar and Shankar Vihar stations). The corridor will have two new interchange facilities that will come up at Janakpuri West (with the Dwarka-Noida/Vaishali Blue Line) and Hauz Khas (with the HUDA City Centre-Samaypur Badli Yellow Line).

The Indira Gandhi International Airport will also be directly connected by the Metro. The section will reduce travel time between Gurugram and Noida to just 50 minutes.

Of the entire 38.2 km stretch from Janakpuri West-Botanical Garden, 14.42 km is elevated and 23.80 km is underground with 10 elevated stations and 15 underground.

Once the section becomes operational, the entire Delhi Metro corridor will expand to 278 km with 202 stations.

After the opening of this section, 88 km of Phase-III will be commissioned, while another 72 km of the section is in the final stage of completion.