'80% trains Delhi Metro's busiest lines to have 6 coaches'

NEW DELHI: Commuters on the two most crowded Metro lines — Gurgaon (HUDA City Centre) to Jehangirpuri (Line 2), and Noida City Centre /Anand Vihar to Dwarka Sector 21 (Line 3), which account for 12 lakh of the network’s ridership of 15.5 lakh-—will not have to suffer for long.

Delhi Metro Rail Corporation ( DMRC) chief E Sreedharan told TOI on Tuesday that their ordeal will be over by May since “80% of the trains (on these lines) would have been converted into six-coach trains’’.

Sreedharan said Metro had an aggressive expansion plan. To begin with, the trains on these two lines will be converted into six-coach trains, but in about three months Line 5 (Inderlok to Mundka) and Line 6 (Central Secretariat to Badarpur) will also get these longer trains. Line 1 (Dilshad Garden to Rithala) will have to wait for Phase III for this relief.

The deadline for the entire Phase III – being implemented at a cost of Rs 28,000 crore in Delhi alone besides Ghaziabad and other destinations – is March 2016.

Delhi Metro is one of the fastest growing transport systems in the country and its rapidly growing ridership has put Lines 2 and 3 under tremendous pressure with commuters packed in trains like sardines, particularly during peak office hours. Commuters have been complaining of slow running trains, crowded stations and a general sense of chaos.