Work begins on new Mandi House station

The new Mandi House station will come up next to the existing one,but at a lower level.

“The existing station runs 9.5 metres below ground level. It was kept shallow,as the underground tracks later emerge to form the elevated stretch towards Pragati Maidan. The new corridor — which comes from Central Secretariat,through Janpath and Mandi House,and moves towards ITO,Delhi Gate,Jama Masjid,Red Fort,before culminating at Kashmere Gate — will be completely underground,” a senior official told Newsline.

“So,the new station has been plotted a little lower,at 11 metres below ground level,and integrated with the existing station at the concourse level. The new station will run on standard gauge and will have an island platform,while the existing one is on broad gauge with side platforms. Due to these reasons,the new station could not be an extension of the existing one and a new one had to be plotted,” the official said.

At present,commuters on the Badarpur corridor have to change two trains — at Central Secretariat and Rajiv Chowk — to get on the Blue Line (Dwarka Sector-21 to Noida City Center/Anand Vihar). The Mandi House interchange will allow them to switch to Blue Line directly.

According to initial estimates,the interchange passenger load will be around 70,000 per day.

Tunneling work will soon be undertaken on the corridor and construction of the shaft (where tunnel boring machine is lowered) has already begun at Chelmsford Road. Officials said the boring machine will be lowered by November. The process will first be carried out on Central Secretariat and Janpath stretch,and then on Janpath to Mandi House route. There will be two parallel tunnels for the up and down lines.

Earlier,the new station had run into trouble as the National School of Drama (NSD),situated near the facility,refused to demolish any portion of their building. The new station was redesigned to ensure minimal damage to NSD premises.

A makeshift library,which is within the new station’s area,will be demolished and rebuilt at an another plot within the NSD premises by the DMRC. “We have re-worked our station design plans so that the NSD campus is not affected. In fact,we have maintained a working space of 2.5 metres from the campus,” a Metro spokesperson said.

Now,the two access points on the NSD side will be demolished and reconstructed after connecting them with the new station.

Barricading at the site has already begun and will be completed in the next one week,by when the Delhi Metro expects to get a formal notification from the NDMC regarding the handing over of the road above the Mandi House station.

Officials said a part of the carriageway,towards the NSD side,will be barricaded for the next three years. The roundabout that leads to Barakhamba,Bengali Market,Ferozeshah Road,Copernicus Marg and ITO will also be taken over by the DMRC.