Part of Pink Line opens; CM requests reduced fare.

The Majlis Park-Durgabai Deshmukh South Campus section of Delhi Metro’s Pink Line was inaugurated on Wednesday.

Flagging off the 21.56-km corridor, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal requested for reduction in Metro fares.

“Metro fares are too high now and we hope that the next time the Fare Fixation Committee [FFC] meets they consider reducing the rates,” said Mr. Kejriwal.

Metro fares were hiked twice last year, triggering protests from commuters and the Delhi government.

The Chief Minister inaugurated the section along with Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri.

Twelve stations

The Majlis Park-Durgabai Deshmukh South Campus corridor comprises 12 stations, including four interchange stations at Azadpur, Netaji Subhash Place, Dhaula Kuan and Rajouri Garden. The Pink Line measures a total of 58 km.

The four interchange stations will connect commuters with Yellow Line (Huda City Centre-Samaypur Badli) at Azadpur, Red Line (Rithala-Dilshad Garden) at Netaji Subhash Place, Blue Line (Dwarka Sector 21-Noida City Centre) at Rajouri Garden and the Airport Express Line at Dhaula Kuan.

Encircling the entire Ring Road (Mahatma Gandhi Road), the Pink Line, once complete, will be beneficial to a large number of commuters — especially those living in Punjabi Bagh, Wazirabad and Shalimar Bagh, which are at present not connected with any direct Metro service going towards south Delhi.

A new high

A stretch between Delhi Cantonment and Durgabai Deshmukh South Campus stations stands at 23.6 metres — as high as a seven-storey building. This is the highest the DMRC has ever been, necessitated by the already elevated Airport Line.

Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot, Union Minister for Science and Technology Harsh Vardhan, MPs Meenakshi Lekhi and Parvesh Verma, and Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) managing director Mangu Singh were also present at the event.

‘Mega achievement’

“This is a mega achievement and for this I would like to congratulate the people of the city. The Metro is the pride of the city and has become a landmark across the world,” Mr. Kejriwal said.

He also clarified that the Delhi government is determined to expand the Metro network and will soon clear proposals for phase-IV. He, however, said that around six routes mentioned in the proposal seem unviable to the government, both financially and based on the traffic attracted by the route.

“We will discuss our concerns over route rationalisation with the Centre and see what can be done to fix it. We will clear the rest of the routes and postpone only those that need to be worked on,” Mr. Kejriwal said.

Mr. Puri also appreciated the work done by the DMRC. With the inauguration of the new section, the operational span of the DMRC has reached 252 km.

The Minister, however, said though the Metro was setting benchmarks when it came to global standards, a lot still needs to be done. “The Metro is leading the way, but we need to invest more in our public transport system to create an environment friendly space for our citizens,” Mr. Puri said.

He also responded to Mr. Kejriwal’s concerns about Metro fare hike, and said that the FFC is an independent body and it had decided to revise the rates after nine years, considering the payment of the capital amount borrowed.

“The fare hike was done by an independent body and we had no power to influence it. However, we will suggest that other revenue options of the Metro be explored and discounts be given to students and senior citizens,” Mr. Puri added.

THE HINDU