Delhi is all ready to welcome the Pink Line today. It will be connecting the North and South campuses of Delhi University in the metro network for the time travel. As reported by officials on Monday, the time taken for travel will amount to 40 minutes. The Pink Line section of Majlis Park-Dugabai Deshmukh would prove to be a great help to the students.
The students earlier had problems to reach to the South campuses as they had to either walk by road or board the Airport Metro Line till Dhaula Kuan or then again travel via road. The Vishwavidyalaya metro station on the Northern Campus of University is located on the Yellow Line and connected Samaypur Badli to Huda City Centre of Gurgaon.
Pink Metro Line: Statements by the officials
Regarding the opening of the Pin Metro Line, a senior official at DRMC said, “The two DU campuses are now connected to each other on the Delhi Metro network for the first time. It will help in cutting travel time for commuters, but benefit the students particularly, who had to travel mostly by road till now.”
Anuj Dayal, the executive director of the corporate communications of Delhi said, “From Vishwavidyalaya metro station to Durgabai Deshmukh South Campus station, it will take around 40 minutes, including time for interchange at Azadpur station.”
The beginning of the line
Azadpur station, on Yellow Line is one of the three stations of interchange. The other two interchange stations are Subhash Place, on Red Line and Rajouri Garden on Blue Line. All these interchange stations fall on the Pink Line starting from today (14th March, 2018). The metro lines were being inspected by the Commissioner for Metro Rail Safety (CMRS) from 26-28 March.
The metro corridor from Maljis Park- Durgavai Deshmukh South Campus which is 21.56 km long will be inaugurated by Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs, Hardeep Singh Puri as well as the Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal at 4pm onwards today at the Metro Bhawan.
The passenger service for the train will commute from 6pm today on both the stations of Majlis Park and Durgabai Deshmukh South Campus respectively. The officials have reported the “end-to-end” travel time to be 34 minute.
Pink Metro Line Stations
There are 12 stations in the section which is a part of 59 km long stretch of Majlis Park and Shiv Vihar corridor (Line 7) on the Phase 3 of Delhi Metro. There will be platform screen doors in all the station. The stations which comprise for this section of the metro are Ajlis Park, Azadpur, Shalimar Bagh, Netaji Subhash Place, Shakurpur, Panjabi bagh West, ESI Hospital, Rajouri Garden, Mayapuri, Naraina Vihar, Delhi cant and Durgabai Deshmukh South Campus.
The eight stations of the 12 stations are elevated while the others are underground. The broad size coaches which were recently introduced in with the Magneta Line will also be a part of the Pink Line of Delhi metro.
Last Route Addition: Kalkaji to Botanical Garden Metro
Pink Metro Line: The Trains
Based on the new generation trains for Metro, which usually don’t require a driver for running, the advanced Communication Based Train Control (CBTC) feature will also be featured in this section. This new technology which will enable the train for move at a frequency of 90 to 100 seconds, is also being inculcated into the service. But to ensure the safety, the first few trains of this section will have drivers.
As reported by DRMC, “Initially trains will be operated with a frequency of 3 minutes and 28 seconds between South Campus and Shakurpur stations during peak time and 4 minutes during off-peak hours. Between Shakurpur and Majlis Park stations it will ply with a frequency of 5 minutes and 12 seconds during peak time and 6 minutes during off-peak hours”.
The section will have about 19 trains initially, as said by DRMC. It reported, “For the first time travelators have been installed at the foot over bridges to facilitate interchange at Rajouri Garden and South Campus stations”.
DRMC also reported that new Netaji Subhash Place station has a number of artworks done of the walls. The India green Council Building has certified the station with “Platinum” record.
DRMC further added, “The metro train on this stretch will also cross Dhaula Kuan at a height of 23.6 m (as high as a seven-storey building) to reach South Campus from Majlis Park.”
The Pink Line of Majlis Park and Shiv Vihar Corridor is part of Phase III project. The testing for the Phase III project of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has been recently completed. The entire corridor for the running of the trains is expected to start from June 2018. DRMC has also reported that with the introduction this phase, the travel time between Dwarka 21 (Blue Line) and Rithala (Red Line) will be reduced by 16 minutes, whereas that between Rajouri Garden and Azadpur will be reduced by 23 minutes.