This metro station to get India’s tallest escalator

With the opening of Magenta Line’s Janakpuri West-Kalkaji Mandir section scheduled for this month, Delhi Metro will add another feather to its cap. The Janakpuri West interchange station will soon boast of India’s tallest escalator.

At an elevation of 15.6 metre, escalators at Janakpuri West metro station will break the record held by Mumbai airport’s Terminal 2, which are currently the tallest in India with a height of 11.6 metres.

“The escalators installed at Janakpuri West have the highest elevation in India,” a Delhi Metro Rail Corporation spokesperson said. While the total horizontal length of the escalators is 35.3 metres, their height is 15.6 metres. The total weight of each of is about 26 tonnes. “The height of these escalators is equal to the height of a five-storey building,” the spokesperson added.

Installing these giant escalators wasn’t an easy task for DMRC. “A 250-tonne crane was specifically planted for the establishment of these escalators,” the spokesperson said. At present, elevators at Kashmere Gate metro station are the tallest in the Delhi Metro network.

The Janakpuri West metro station on Blue Line (Dwarka Sector 21-Noida City Centre/Vaishali) has been converted into an interchange station, connecting it with the soon-to-be-opened Magenta Line (Janakpuri West-Botanical Garden). The station would connect west Delhi to important locations such as Terminal 1 of Indira Gandhi International airport, Munirka, Hauz Khas, Nehru Place and Botanical Garden (Noida).

DMRC expects 53,700 additional commuters to use the interchange station, apart from the existing 15,000 commuters who use the station currently.

The new station of Magenta Line is 17 metres below ground level. Two pairs of escalators will connect the concourse of the underground station with concourse of elevated station.