Action replay 2013: Metro pushed on despite setbacks

DELHI: The start of trial runs on the Central Secretariat-Mandi House stretch on December 30—much before the March 2014 deadline—was the culmination of a year that saw Delhi Metro rush to meet targets. It wasn't all smooth sailing, though.

Lack of land and clearances slowed down work along alignments like Jamia Nagar and Kalindi Kunj. A part of the platform at the Noida City Centre station started sagging in September and was repaired over a month. The Blue and Yellow lines were dogged by delays due to breakdowns.

In 2013, Delhi Metro started work on two corridors in phase III—Mukundpur-Shiv Vihar and Janakpuri (west)-Botanical Garden. Work on extending the Badarpur-Faridabad line started along with the Mundka-Bahadurgarh corridor. In September, construction work on the Dwarka-Najafgarh corridor also took off.

Delhi Metro take over the operations of Airport Metro Express in July after Reliance Infrastructure-led DAMEPL refused to run the line.

Eight-coach operations started on the Blue Line (Dwarka Sector 21-Noida /Vaishali) in August while the Red Line (Dilshad Garden-Rithala ) got its first six-coach train in November.