New meeting point for 3 Metro corridors

This interchange station is expected to cut down travel time as commuters from North Delhi,moving towards Southeast Delhi,need not change two trains at Rajiv Chowk and Central Secretariat and can instead take a direct train from Kashmere Gate. It will also connect commuters directly to important business centres and heritage sites,such as Red Fort,Daryaganj,ITO and Janpath. An extension of the Badarpur corridor,this will be the first Metro line of the upcoming phase,to be operational by 2015.

The station currently handles 40,000 passengers per day and once the new one is made operational,it is estimated to take on a significant section of the interchange passenger load. The interchange passenger load between the existing underground line (part of the Jahangirpuri to HUDA City Center corridor) with the new line (Central Secretariat to Kashmere Gate) is estimated to be around 92,721 passengers per day by 2016,while this interchange load between the existing elevated line (Rithala to Dilshad Garden) and the new line is pegged at 32,911 passengers per day in the next five years,Metro officials said.

The new underground station has been plotted right next to the existing one: Below the Inter State Bus Terminus at Kashmere Gate. The existing access points on either side of the Shahdara flyover will be closed during the construction period and reconstructed at the same spot,while a third access point linking the new station will come up right in front of the ISBT main building.

Officials said since the new station will have an island platform (Central platform with tracks on either side) and the existing underground station also has a similar structure,it was not possible to connect them at the platform level. Commuters deboarding on either of the lines will have to come to the concourse level,which will connect both the lines. Those moving on to the elevated line can take elevators or escalators connecting them to the elevated station. The station already has five levels,two underground,one at grade and two elevated.

The new Kashmere Gate station,an extension of the existing one,has been designed to have random rubble masonry stone walls on the station exteriors to merge with the adjacent historic City Wall.

The Central Secretariat to Kashmere Gate corridor is the first Metro line of the Phase III project expected to be completed by mid-2015. Construction work for the first stretch from Central Secretariat to Mandi House has already begun while tenders for the following stretch from Mandi House to Jama Masjid and the rest of the stretch to Kashmere Gate has been floated. Construction of the shaft (where the tunnel boring machine is lowered) has already begun at Chelmsford Road and civil work on the Janpath station is expected to begin in a week’s time.

The line has received all the necessary approvals; such as the Delhi governments’ and the Empowered Group of Ministers’. It now awaits a final go-ahead from the National Monument Authority,a body set up by the Ministry of Culture following the amendment of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act,2010.

The cost of civil works on the line is approximately Rs 1,900 crore,while the entire corridor is estimated to cost Rs 3,900 crore.