New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday inaugurated the extension of the Delhi Metro’s Airport Line which now terminates at the YashoBhoomi Dwarka Sector 25 station.
He unveiled a plaque at the new station marking the nearly two-km extension of the Airport Line. The prime minister also interacted with some metro workers at the station, sources said.
Before the inauguration, Modi took a metro ride from the Dhaula Kuan station to the newly built YashoBhoomi Dwarka Sector 25 metro station. During the ride, many passengers interacted with the prime minister and snapped selfies with him.
A woman passenger also wished him on his birthday in Sanskrit. Modi turned 73 on Sunday.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a metro ride to reach the new station at Dwarka Sector 25. The train he travelled in moved at 120 kmph. So that was in a way a formal start of services with enhanced speed on the Airport Express Line the extension of which was also inaugurated by the prime minister today,” a senior official told PTI.
The high-speed corridor has been extended from Dwarka Sector 21 to the underground YashoBhoomi Dwarka Sector 25 station which has been built using the conventional cut-and-cover technology.
The opening of the new metro station at Dwarka Sector 25 will enhance urban connectivity in the sub-city and facilitate people in reaching the India International Convention and Expo Centre (IICC), named YashoBhoomi.
Prime Minister Modi later inaugurated the Phase-1 of YashoBhoomi, a state-of-the-art convention and expo centre, in Dwarka.
Passenger operations on this extended section started from 3 pm on Sunday, according to officials.
“With the addition of this section, the total length of the Airport Express Line from New Delhi to YashoBhoomi Dwarka Sector 25 is now 24.9 km,” a senior official said.
In addition to serving the convention centre, this new station will also provide metro connectivity to residents around Dwarka Sector 25 and the new sectors along the Dwarka Expressway in neighbouring Gurugram. Residents of these areas will now be able to reach central Delhi in about half an hour, officials said.
With the opening of this section, the total length of the Delhi Metro network has now increased to 393 km with 288 stations, including the Noida-Greater Noida Metro Corridor and the Rapid Metro in Gurugram.
The Airport Express Line now has seven metro stations — New Delhi (interchange with Yellow Line), Shivaji Stadium, Dhaula Kuan, Delhi Aerocity, Airport (T-3 or Terminal-3), Dwarka Sector 21 (interchange with Blue Line) and YashoBhoomi Dwarka Sector 25.
As the Delhi Metro has increased the operational speed of trains on the Airport Express Line to 120 kmph starting Sunday, the total journey from New Delhi station to the newly built YashoBhoomi Dwarka Sector 25 station will take about 21 minutes, officials said.
Earlier the travel time between New Delhi and Dwarka Sector 21 was around 22 minutes, and now it has reduced to around 19 minutes.
The approximate travel time between New Delhi and Terminal 3 of the Delhi Airport will be about 15 minutes and 30 seconds. Earlier, it was a little more than 18 minutes, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) said.
This “historic increase” in speed of trains on India’s fastest metro corridor gradually from 90 kmph to 120 kmph has been made possible by “meticulous planning and time-bound implementation by DMRC’s engineers in consultation with a number of other government agencies and domain experts”, the DMRC had earlier said.
