3km underground Mandi House-Central Secretariat Metro trials from Dec 30

NEW DELHI: DMRC will start trial runs on the first section of Phase III—between Central Secretariat and Mandi House-—from December 30. "Work on this 3km underground stretch, part of the Central Secretariat-Kashmere Gate corridor, is almost complete. It is expected to become operational by the end of March next year," said the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation spokesman.

The trail runs will be on for a couple of months. Delhi Metro officials said that the opening of this stretch has been advanced by about six months as the stretch will help in decongesting the busy Rajiv Chowk Metro station.

"Commuters of the Badarpur-Central Secretariat line bound for Noida and Vaishali will be able to change over at Mandi House without having to change trains twice, at Central Secretariat and Rajiv Chowk," added the spokesman.
According to Delhi Metro, civil engineering, track-fitting , electrification, signalling and telecommunication works are in an advanced stage of completion. The date planned originally for the opening of this stretch was October next year. Construction started on this stretch in December 2011. The Mandi House station will be the first interchange station of Delhi Metro’s Phase III. Approximately 70,000 new passengers are expected to use the station by the year 2016.

"During the trial runs, the interaction of the Metro train with physical infringements (civil structure) will be checked to ensure there is no obstruction during the movement of the train on the track. The entire signaling system will also undergo rigorous testing," added the Delhi Metro official.

In addition, the response of the train at different speeds, braking of the train and the interconnection with the operations control centre (OCC) will also be monitored during the trials. "The response of the track system and the overhead electrification (OHE) will be checked repeatedly during all the trials," he added.

The section will provide interchange facility at two stations, namely Central Secretariat and Mandi House.

Meanwhile, Delhi Metro said that the technical snag that had disrupted services on the Blue line (Dwarka Sector- 21-Noida / Vaishali) on Monday had been because of theft of cable from a junction box. DMRC is approaching Delhi Police to look into the matter.