Metro Phase III to expand,cover more of Haryana

At a recent meeting of an Empowered Group of Ministers on Mass Rapid Transit System,Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath highlighted the long-pending demand of residents of these areas and stressed on the need to connect such areas under Phase III itself.

The third phase is scheduled to be complete by 2016 and has an expected ridership of 40 lakh.

On Nath’s request,the EGoM,headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee,decided that three corridors will be brought before the committee as a supplementary item for approval for including them in Phase-III,Ministry officials said.

The three corridors are Yamuna Vihar-Shiv Vihar,extension of Mundka line to Bahadurgarh and Dwarka-Najafgarh.

The Delhi Metro has already prepared detailed project reports for these corridors. While the Dwarka-Najafgarh corridor will have four stations at a length of 5.50 km,the Mundka-Bahadurgarh standard gauge corridor will be 11-km long with six stations.

At the meeting,ministers approved the original version of phase III at a length of 103.50 km with four corridors which will be implemented at a cost of Rs 35,242 crore with 40 per cent funding from Japan’s International Cooperation Agency. These already approved corridors are Mukundpur to Yamuna Vihar,Janakpuri West to Kalinidikunj,Central Secretariat to Kashmere Gate and Jahangirpuri-Badli.