The Yamuna Bank to Noida Sector-32 Metro corridor, which is scheduled to open for the public by the end of this month, is most likely to miss the deadline as Delhi Metro continues to face a shortage of trains. It also has the additional task of checking the piers on this completely elevated stretch. Two cantilever piers on this section were found to have cracks towards the end of last month on which corrective action is being taken.

The much-awaited Noida corridor will be the first Metro Rail project connecting the NCR but the DMRC is yet to get a final nod from the Urban Development Ministry to start operations in the NCR. Earlier this year, however, a bill to amend the Delhi Metro Railway (Operation and Maintenance) Act 2002, and the Metro Railway (Construction of Works) Act 1978 was passed by the Lok Sabha to expedite the Metro rail project in the NCR.

Metro officials maintained that the nod from the Urban Development Ministry does not look like much of a hurdle. The shortage of trains and the pending structural checks of the piers are the bigger roadblocks. An expert agency, Shirish Patel and Associates is looking into the cracks on the two piers on this line and corrective action is being taken.

“DMRC doesn’t want to take any chances now and hence the structural checks of the piers which were detected with cracks on this line are being put to critical tests and corrective action is being taken on them,” said a DMRC official.

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