Metro likely to miss Noida entry deadline

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.

Though the official deadline for this project is October,the line was earlier scheduled for an early commissioning in June. But this was delayed due to a shortage of trains and the rescheduled internal deadline was set for August end. However,sources in the DMRC said that the line will require a minimum of seven to eight trains to begin with but the new trains that have arrived are all of a different make and the commissioning of these trains is thereby taking more time. While trial runs of these trains have begun,seven trains might not be ready for commissioning by end of this month.

Trial runs on a part of this stretch from Yamuna Bank to New Ashok Nagar were started on July 25. This completely elevated corridor,a 13.1 km stretch,with 10 stations will be an extension of the existing Blue Line (Line III – Dwarka Sector 9 to Yamuna Bank). Once operational,this will be the longest line of Delhi Metro and directly connect Dwarka Sector 9 to Noida City Centre in Sector 32.

Yamuna Bank to Noida Sec-32
Length of the line: 13.1 km