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Central Sectt to Kashmere Gate in 13 minutes New Delhi, July 2 The 6.3-km stretch, joining the historic old city and central Delhi at a cost of Rs 2,200 crore, has been the most-challenging assignment of the DMRC. The work on the section, which began in April, 2001, was completed eight months ahead of schedule. It has state-of-the-art stations at Kashmere Gate, Old Delhi railway station, Chawri Bazar, New Delhi railway station, Rajiv Chowk, Patel Chowk and Central Secretariat. Mrs Gandhi, while appreciating the DMRC for the early completion of the project, assured the Centre’s assistance for introducing similar projects in other cities of the country. She said several cities had expressed desire to have metro links and the UPA government would provide all help in setting up such projects. Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said not just Delhi but the whole country could be “truly proud of the metro.” Managing Director of the DMRC E. Sreedhran said while executing the “most difficult and formidable section of the Phase-I,” special care was taken to preserve architectural heritage of old Delhi and character of Lutyen’s Delhi. The face of the city will change once Delhi Metro becomes completely operational by Commonwealth Games in 2010. With the inauguration of the 6.3-km stretch of underground Line-II, which is a part of the 11-km line between Delhi University and Central Secretariat, it will take just 13 minutes to travel from Central Secretariat to Kashmere Gate. Each station is powered by the northern grid and will have two electric auxiliary sub-stations. There are arrangements for special fire protection, detection and suppression systems and passengers can be evacuated safely in case of a fire.All stations have facilities for physically challenged persons and the underground stretch has mobile-phone connectivity. The entire train operation is computer controlled with the train driver’s role being limited to closing the doors and starting and switching the trains off. As many as 1.4 lakh to 1.6 lakh commuters use the existing 4-km underground stretch and the elevated segment between Shahdara and Rithala each day. Between Delhi University and Kashmere Gate alone, around 20,000 persons use the metro everyday. Care has been taken to execute the underground line in such a way that aesthetic beauty of some of the historic buildings like Kashmere Gate and Jantar Mantar is not destroyed. While Kashmere Gate has both underground as well as elevated run, the metro passes by Jantar Mantar underground. Except for an incident in Chawri Bazar, where a structure developed problems for which adequate relief measures were ensured, not even a single accident occurred during the execution of the project.  |
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