The 24.8-km Kalkaji Mandir-Janakpuri West stretch of Delhi Metro Rail Corporations (DMRC)’s Magenta Line, which was inaugurated on 28 May commenced its operations for public on Tuesday.
On Monday, Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs (Independent Charge) Hardeep Singh Puri and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had inaugurated the corridor at Nehru Enclave metro station.
Here’s all you need to know about DMRC’s Magenta Line:
On December 25, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated the 12.64-km-long stretch of the Magenta Line’s Botanical Garden-Kalkaji Mandir corridor, cutting down the travel time between Noida and parts of south Delhi by more than 30 minutes.
Now, with the opening of the remainder of the Magneta Line, the travel time between Noida and Gurgaon will shrink by at least 30 minutes.
This 24.82-km section Magenta Line is also the longest stretch to have been opened so far in the DMRC’s Phase-III project.
With the opening of this section, the total operational span of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) network has reached to 277 km.
The line has 16 stations — 14 underground and two elevated.
Terminal 1 of the IGI Airport has also been connected to the metro network through this corridor, with an eponymous station on it.
The line will cut travel time between Gurgaon and Noida to just 50 minutes.
The escalators installed at the new Janakpuri West Metro station have the highest elevation for any escalator in India.
These escalators have a height of 15.65 metres which surpasses the escalators installed at the Kashmere Gate Metro station which have a height of 14.575 metres.
The horizontal length of the escalators are 35.32 metres, which is almost equal to a five storey building.
The present station at Hauz Khas is 17 metres deep. The new station has been built adjacent to the existing station at a depth of 29 metres with a length of 265 metres.
At 29 metres, the five-level new Hauz Khas station is the deepest metro station in the entire network and an engineering landmark as its tunnel goes beneath that of the existing station on Yellow Line.
Hauz Khas (with Yellow Line) and Janakpuri West (with Blue Line) stations are the interchange facilities on this corridor, besides the existing Kalkaji Mandir station (with Violet Line).
With the opening of this stretch, the entire Janakpuri West-Botanical Garden Magenta Line corridor, covering the city’s arterial Outer Ring Road, has become operational.
The corridor will operate with 24 trains which will gradually increase to 26 apart from the operating reserves.
The frequency will be 5 minutes and 15 seconds during peak hours through the whole section and could be reduced after studying the traffic pattern.
The Delhi Metro is also touting the Magenta Line as a ‘Knowledge Corridor’ as four major universities of the Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR), have been connected on it.
Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) are the institutions which will get metro connectivity with the opening of the new corridor, while Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) in south Delhi and Amity University in Noida have already got metro connectivity with the opening of the Botanical Garden-Kalkaji Mandir section in December last year.