Delhi Metro Rail Corporation officials have their hopes pinned on completion of Metro Phase II project to ease the congestion in the trains and stations.

Over the next year, as new Metro corridors add to the existing network, taking the total connectivity of the Metro to 190 km from the existing 90 km, the ridership is also expected to increase substantially.

The DMRC, meanwhile, has ordered 131 new broad gauge trains and 49 standard gauge trains. These, however, will come in batches and will be fed into the existing and new lines gradually. DMRC officials feel there might not be immediate respite from the overcrowding in trains and stations, but once all the trains have come in by September 2010 and all lines have been commissioned, the Metro will begin running smoothly.

Out of the 131 broad gauge trains to be supplied by Bombardier, 14 have already been delivered and are in different stages of commissioning. Some of these new trains that are already running, however, suffered technical failures.

“Every new train has to be run for a certain distance before it becomes entirely fit and all technical aspects are checked. We received 14 new trains which are already on the tracks and they were introduced to ease the existing pressure. We could have not introduced these new trains and run them only during non-operational hours but that would have meant the overcrowding would continue,” DMRC managing director E Sreedharan said.

The DMRC has now engaged an expert to man every new train. “If there is any technical problem it can be immediately attended to and will not affect the other trains on the track,” Sreedharan added.

... contd.