Badarpur Metro nears launch

The Central Secretariat-Badarpur Metro corridor inched closer to completion with trial runs on the corridor beginning Friday morning.

The Central Secretariat-Badarpur Metro corridor inched closer to completion with trial runs on the corridor beginning Friday morning. The first run covered a 9-km stretch from Lajpat Nagar Metro station to Central Secretariat.

Trials will be extended to the entire line as work on the stretch gets completed.

Trial runs were conducted at a controlled speed since this was the first train running on the section. The civil structure was checked to ensure there were no problems during train movement, said a DMRC spokesperson.

Officials said trials will continue for a few weeks,after which they will gradually be extended up to Okhla and beyond as the work gets completed on the other sections of the corridor.

The corridor,which is 20.16-km long,is expected to be opened to the public before the Commonwealth Games.

The trial run was preceded by a small puja,with senior DMRC officials in attendance who also travelled on the first train from Lajpat Nagar to Central Secretariat.

This was one of the most challenging lines as the total time available for the construction was extremely short. Only 41 months were available to complete the project as the line was sanctioned on April 20,2007. We hope to commission it by September, said DMRC spokesperson Anuj Dayal.

Snag hits services on Shahdara-Rithala line

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NEW DELHI: Services on Delhi Metros Line 1 (Shahdara- Rithala) were hit for over 30 minutes on Friday morning as the overhead electrification line suffered a technical glitch. According to Metro officials,trains on the line stopped running between 8.45 am and 9.15 am while the commuters alleged trains remained off track for over an hour. The technical fault took place at the Kashmere Gate Metro station,which is one of the busiest stations of the entire Metro network.

Metro places order for 40 more trains

NEW DELHI: To ease crowding on trains,the Delhi Metro has placed order of 40 broad gauge Metro trains with Bombardier Transportation. This is in addition to the last months order of 74 trains.

DMRC officials said the 114 coaches will be used to increase the existing fleet from four-coach trains to six and eight-coach trains. While there is a separate consignment to bring in new trains on the upcoming lines,we have felt a need to increase the capacity of the existing fleet. So a fresh batch of broad gauge trains has been ordered. Commuters should expect to see the first six-coach metro train by December this year, said DMRC spokesperson Anuj Dayal.

A Bombardier spokesperson said,The contract is valued at approximately 43 million euros ($55 million US) and the delivery will follow the completion of existing contract delivery and is expected to end in 2011. With the new order DMRC will be operating a fleet of 538 MOVIA metro cars,one of the largest in the world.