Delhi Metro set to miss first deadline in 12 years

NEW DELHI: Twelve years after the Delhi Metro started its operations, it will miss the deadline for a project for the first time. Work on phase III has been delayed owing to a variety of reasons, primarily land acquisition issues, said DMRC managing director Mangu Singh.“I would like to keep the sanctity of the year-end deadline. So, we will start trials on both the new corridors. However, commissioning of the lines is not possible in 2016,“ Singh admitted.

Asked when the corridors--Majlis Park to Shiv Vihar and Janakpuri (West) to Kalindi Kunj--are likely to be commissioned, Singh said, “The first quarter of 2017, I think.“

Trials on the two corridors are scheduled to start from November. On line 7, trials will be conducted between Majlis Park and Netaji Subhash Place. The section between Janakpuri (West) and the domestic airport on line 8 will also be tested.

Singh said trials would start in the Kalindi Kunj-Kalkaji section (line 8) in August.The other line of phase III--line 6, which is an extension of the Central Secretariat line to Kashmere Gate line--will have a test run in August. “We hope to go in for a safety audit in 2-3 months. It should be ready by November,“ Singh added.


The commissioning of lines 7 and 8, which are parallel to Ring Road, has been a victim of land acquisition issues, according to Singh. “Encroachment on lands in Punjabi Bagh and Mayapuri (line 8) was removed last week. There are other pockets of land which are still not with DMRC and this will delay the completion of phase III,“ added the DMRC chief. Singh was referring to the land in Trilokpuri, which was held up in litigation till a few months ago.

Another major reason for the delay , said Singh, was the new signalling system. CBTC (communication-based train control) is a system that enables trains to communicate with each other through radio signals. This will be implemented for the first time in phase III. It will allow DMRC to eventually move to the driverless trains on the two new corridors.

“It is practically like going back to phase I, where everything was new,“ said Singh. The signalling contractor wanted nine months for trials, which is why the commissioning has been postponed to next year for both lines, he added. “Once the train trials start, we will simultaneously start the signalling system trials, which will take at least six months.“

For the other end of the Majlis Park-Shiv Vihar line, work is also held up because of land acquisition issues. Said Singh, “Trials from Yamuna Vihar to IP Extension will be started by the year-end. A small part--50-60m--is still stuck with a private party and we are negotiating for that,“ said Singh. For the section on NH-24, which is now delayed by eight months as reported by TOI last week, Singh said the commissioning date for the section is likely to be August 2017. “We are hoping to connect the Vinod Nagar depot with the main line as soon as possible,“ said the DMRC head.

The status of the MayapuriPunjabi Bagh stretch, according to Singh, will be completed in another 5-6 months.“Three spans at each location are to be completed, with one span being across a railway track. These should be finished in six months,“ said Singh.This will help DMRC take the trails right up to Lajpat Nagar, he added.