6 min readNew DelhiJan 1, 2023 12:30 PM IST
First published on: Jan 1, 2023 at 06:56 AM IST
As the hour to inaugurate the Delhi Metro drew closer on December 25, 2002, a group of anxious officers escorting then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee prayed for just one thing — no last-minute glitches. By the time the 8-km Red line between Tis Hazari and Shahdara was flagged off, hundreds of people were at the gates, waiting for the first ride on the modern transit system they had been hearing about since 1995. At the end of the day, close to 12 lakh passengers rode the Metro, which the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation says was six times the design capacity at the time. Automatic tokens were not ready on the first day, so paper tickets were printed.
Two decades later, the Delhi Metro is a 390-km network with 12 different lines. Three phases of Metro construction are complete, and work on Phase 4 is underway. Under this, the biggest line will be 29 km long and will connect Janakpuri West Metro station on the Magenta line and RK Ashram station on the Blue line. The Janakpuri-RK Ashram stretch will run through Haiderpur, Sadar Bazar, Azadpur, Bhalswa, Pushpanjali Enclave, Mangolpuri and Paschim Vihar. Construction began in 2019 but, like everything else, was stalled by the pandemic. The initial deadline of 2024 has now been pushed back by two years. Two other lines under Phase 4 are the 24-km Delhi Aerocity-Tughlakabad stretch and the 12-km Majlis Park-Maujpur stretch.
‘One of a kind’
For a city where public transport was essentially non-AC buses, the Metro brought not just a modern experience, with tokens, cards, automatic fare collection gates, and escalators, but also a safe, clean and fast mode of commuting.
Said Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot, “The Metro is the lifeline of the city and it is always a great joy and learning experience for me when I have travelled in it. Its mega expansion in the last two decades is because of the strong commitments to success and relentless efforts of all stakeholders. The public service provided by it is one of its kind in the world. Now, it has also expanded to rural parts of Delhi such as Najafgarh.”
For Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner Nishant Kumar Yadav, the Metro was what he relied on to get to his Civil Services coaching classes in Old Rajinder Nagar. “It was and still remains the most convenient mode of transport, especially for students. My coaching classes were in Old Rajinder Nagar. This was around 2010-11. We would take the Metro on most occasions, and it saved time and money. In terms of other factors, too, like cleanliness and service, the Delhi Metro fares better than those abroad. I have been to Paris, but Delhi Metro is better… koi mukabla nahi.”
With 286 stations (including those in the Gurgaon Rapid Metro and the Greater Noida Aqua line), the network is slowly expanding to Delhi’s outskirts and rural pockets. In 2019, a small 5-km stretch between Dhansa’s bus stand in Najafgarh and Dwarka (on the Blue line) was inaugurated, finally bringing a degree of freedom to the residents.
A Jal Board official who relies on the Metro daily said: “People living in Central, South, and East Delhi have been reaping benefits of the Metro. A small part of Najafgarh has now been connected, which means I can take the Grey line to get on to the Blue line and the entire network is available to me. Earlier, all I could hope for was to get a bus so I could reach my office in Karol Bagh on time. There is still a need for penetration into Southwest and Northwest Delhi, where several villages are still unconnected.”
Anuj Sinha, DTC’s Deputy General Manager, said both the Metro and buses are the city’s lifelines. “Prior to the start of the first Delhi Metro section in late 2002, DTC was the main public service carrier in the city since Independence. During construction of the Metro, DTC extended all possible help in diversion of routes with least hardship to commuters. Now, it has grown to serve Delhiites in a better way due to its large network, but the DTC still has more reach up to most of the villages of the GNCTD area as per operational feasibility. Delhi Metro and DTC buses are the most used public transportation and have become the life lines of Delhi.”
A liberator
Paras Tyagi, whose NGO, Centre for Youth, Culture, Law, and Environment, works on issues of rural Delhi, said the Metro network needs to touch more urban villages. “Initially, there was talk of areas beyond Rithala and in Najafgarh being worked into the new lines soon, but that did not come to fruition.” He pointed out how a wider network means more opportunities for women in those areas.
Sara Sheikh (34), who works at an MNC in Gurgaon, testifies to this. She was in Class XII when the Kashmere Gate to Central Secretariat stretch of the Metro opened in 2005. “By the time I started college, the Metro had been extended to Vishwavidyalaya (North Campus). Many women in my neighbourhood in Chandni Chowk’s Sita Ram Bazar would either not go to college at all or would attend Zakir Husain Delhi College since it was the closest. I got through Miranda House, and the only reason my parents let me study there was the Metro. I was the first woman in my family to go to college and I owe it all to the transport,” she said.
With inputs from Gayathri Mani and Pavneet Singh Chadha
Two decades later, the Delhi Metro is a 390-km network with 12 different lines. 
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