New Delhi, Apr 2 (UNI) Marking a milestone in the country's transport infrastructure, India's first Standard Gauge Metro line reached Mundka today with the Delhi Metro inaugurating its new green corridor from Inderlok here.
The 15.15 km-long line was flagged off by Minister for Urban Development S Jaipal Reddy in presence of Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, Union Women and Child Development Minister Krishna Tirath, Delhi PWD and Revenue Minister Raj Kumar Chauhan, DMRC Managing Director E Sreedharan and other dignitaries who took the
inaugural ride from Inderlok to Paschim Vihar (East) station.
Mr Reddy said, ''This line of the Delhi Metro has initiated the establishment of Standard Gauge in the country. From now onwards, only this gauge would be used on the tracks.''
Referring to the Metro networks under construction in Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad, the Union Minister said they all would be constructed over Standard Gauge.
Being on the Standard Gauge rails measuring four feet and 8.5 inches, as against Broad Gauge used for Phase one, the tracks on this line will be narrower and speed of the trains better.
With the commissioning of this line that will be opened to public from 0600 hrs tomorrow, the total Metro network has increased to over 111 km and 97 stations.
The Chief Minister expressed hope that the ongoing widening of the Metro network in the country would continue.
The line, forming a part of Phase II of the Delhi Metro, has 14 stations namely Inderlok, Ashok Park Main, Punjabi Bagh East, Shivaji Park, Madipur, Paschim Vihar East, Paschim Vihar West, Peera Garhi, Udyog Nagar, Surajmal Stadium, Nangloi, Nangloi Railway station, Rajdhani Park and Mundka.
It is expected to receive a foot-fall of over one lakh commuters everyday, along with reducing the crowd on the existing system, DMRC spokesperson Anuj Dayal said.
The section has joined two existing Delhi Metro lines -- Line one (red line) and Line three (blue line) -- together in the middle to cut the travel time. Line one is joined at Inderlok station while Line three will be joined at Kirti Nagar station later this year.
Initially, 10 trains would be running on this line with a peak hour frequency of six minutes and one extra train has been kept as standby for emergency use.
The time taken to travel from one end to the other end of the line will be 29 minutes only.
Talking about the facilities available at the new stations, Mr Dayal said a new type of Automatic Fare Collection (AFC) gates have been introduced on this line.
''It will allow faster passage for commuters and improve passenger management. These gates will also have a provision for return of tokens from the AFC gates,'' he said.
A total of 91 AFC Gates have been provided on this line comprising 33 Entry, 44 Exit and 14 Disable Friendly AFC Gates.
In addition, the stations have all other facilities like lifts and escalators, Ticket Office Machines or Token Counters, Customer Care Centres and toilets. Parking is available at 10 of the 14 stations of this line.
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