Travelling in Delhi Metro’s longest corridor — Pink Line — will be a reality soon as track laying and other ancillaries works between Mayur Vihar Pocket 1 and Trilokpuri Sanjay Lake have been commenced, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) said on Friday.

The DMRC informed that following the completion of civil works, the track laying process, as well as overhead electrification, has been initiated.

“The track laying work is expected to be completed by the end of June. Preliminary trials are expected to start thereafter. All efforts are being made to further expedite the progress of work on this particular stretch. The section shall be operational immediately after receiving the mandatory clearances from all the concerned authorities,” the DMRC said in a statement.

It is pertinent to mention that the 58.6 km long Pink Line was made functional in 2019 in two separate sections — from Majlis Park to Mayur Vihar I and from Shiv Vihar to Trilokpuri. A small stretch between Mayur Vihar Pocket 1 and Trilokpuri got delayed due to some land acquisition issue, which has now been resolved.

The DMRC said that to expedite work on the Pink Line stretches (Trilokpuri section), it has adopted a novel 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,” the DMRC said.

It further informed that a total of 40 steel girders have been placed on 10 spans for the 290 metre-long section. These steel girders have been fabricated and brought from a workshop at Ambala in Haryana.

According to the DMRC, the length of these girders varies from 16 to 38 metres. The height of the viaduct stands at about 8 to 9.5 metres.

“The track laying work is expected to be completed by the end of June. Preliminary trials are expected to start thereafter. All efforts are being made to further expedite the progress of work on this particular stretch. The section shall be operational immediately after receiving the mandatory clearances from all the concerned authorities,” the DMRC said.

Once completed, this section will connect the two ends of Pink Line and provide seamless connectivity to a long range of localities in the national capital.

Important transport hubs such as Nizamuddin Railway Station, Sarai Kale Khan ISBT, Anand Vihar Railway Station, Anand Vihar ISBT, Delhi Cantt. Railway Station and prominent markets like Dilli Haat-INA, Sarojini Nagar, and Lajpat Nagar will get direct connectivity through this corridor.

The Pink corridor will further be extended from Majlis Park to Maujpur in Phase IV, making it the longest single Metro corridor in India at approximately 70 km.

After the completion of Phase IV, the Pink Line will also become the only Ring Corridor of Metro in the country.

The DMRC is also developing an internal road below the viaduct at Trilokpuri which will connect Vasundhara Road with Trilokpuri Road.