NEW DELHI (Metro Rail News): Delhi Metro’s 4.3 km long Grey Line (Line-9 from Dwarka to Najafgarh) extension corridor of 1.21 km from Najafgarh to Dhansa Bus Stand is expected to begin commercial operation from next month.
According to Anuj Dayal, Executive Director, Corporate Communications, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), “We are making all efforts to try and open the Najafgarh – Dhansa section sometime later next month after complying with all statutory requirements.”
Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot inspected Dhansa Stand Metro station on Saturday and tweeted, “I am happy to inform that the work of Dhansa Stand Metro station at Najafgarh has been completed. Soon it will be opened to the public. Inspected the station with DMRC officials today. This metro station also has a covered parking facility for about 150 vehicles.”
This extension corridor is one of three small sections under Phase-3 which are still under construction, completion of these three sections will officially marks the completion of Phase-3 of Delhi Metro. The other two sections are Pink Line (Line-7) small stretch of 1.38 km from Mayur Vihar Pocket 1 to Trilokpuri and Airport Express Line extension from Dwarka Sec-21 to Dwarka ECC Sector-25 of length 1.878 km with 1 station.
At present, Grey Line of Delhi Metro has length of 4.3 km from Dwarka to Najafgarh with three stations namely Dwarka, Nangli and Najafgarh with the first two are elevated while the Najafgarh station is underground. The new Dhansa Stand Metro station will also be an underground station. After completion of this underground tunnel section of 1.21 from Najafgarh to Dhansa Bus Stand, Grey Line will have length of 5.4 km with four stations.
The extension corridor was scheduled to become operational by December 2020 but the construction work got delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the resultant lockdowns with the new deadline for operation was May 2021. However, some work is still remained to be completed. As per sources, the final safety inspection of the underground corridor is likely to take place on 10th of July.
The tunneling work for the underground corridor is carrying out using two methods, the 700 meters of tunneling was done using TBM (Tunnel Boring Machine), a contract for which was originally awarded to the joint venture of Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Co. Ltd. and SUCG Infrastructure India Pvt. Ltd in October 2017 which also includes construction of Dhansa Stand Metro station and for another 290 meters, tunneling work is being done by the cut and cover method, the contract for which was awarded to Paras Railtech Pvt. Ltd. in October 2020.
