New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has flagged-off the Delhi-Faridabad Metro Line that would allow hassle free travel for around two lakh daily commuters between the national capital and the industrial hub in Haryana.
The extension of the Delhi Metro connects Badarpur to Escorts Mujesar in Faridabad.
The total cost of the project from Badarpur to Escorts Mujesar is nearly Rs. 2,500 crore. Out of this, Rs. 1,557 crore was borne by the Haryana Government, the Centre contributed Rs. 537 crore, while the Delhi Metro provided Rs. 400 crore.
All these are elevated and located on either side of the Delhi-Mathura Road (NH-2).
“The nine-station metro corridor which was 95 per cent indigenously built will provide people a safe, affordable, quick, comfortable, reliable, environment-friendly and sustainable transport facility,” a Haryana government spokesperson said.
Haryana Chief Minister ML Khattar, addressing a press conference on Saturday, had thanked the Prime Minister for “gifting” the Metro service which would take the city to “another level of progress” with better connectivity with other NCR towns.
He had also said that the Prime Minister would be announcing the go-ahead for connecting Gurgaon with Faridabad by Metro.
“Hyderabad Metro Rail will resume its services from 6.35 PM onwards today, in a phased manner,” the metro rail tweeted from its official account.
Earlier on Friday metro rail informed about the suspension of metro services in all three lines of the Hyderabad Metro Rail “till further notice” at 1:12 pm via tweet stating “Passengers are informed that due to some disturbance in the city, all operations in all three lines of Hyderabad Metro Rail stand suspended till further notice. Passengers are advised to take care and make alternate arrangements.”
LTMRHL took the decision amid the tense situations in the city due to ongoing Anti-Agnipath protests in the state. According to the reports, one person died in Telangana`s Secunderabad after the protest against the Agnipath recruitment scheme took a violent turn. The protestors vandalised the Secunderabad Railway Station and set a train on fire during the protest.
GURUGRAM (Metro Rail News): RITES Ltd., a leading transport infrastructure consultancy and engineering company, inaugurated its first office in Guwahati, Assam. Located opposite the Secretariat, in the heart of the city, the new office is spread across 5,500 square feet.
At the inauguration, Executive Director (Buildings & Airports), RITES Ltd., Mr. Pawan Chowdhry, said, “We have been partnering with North-East in its development. Now, to further cement RITES’ presence in the region, we needed to have a centrally located office with dedicated staff. The Guwahati office will help RITES widen its growth potential multi-fold, as we continue to provide excellent infrastructure and consultancy services for projects across Assam and the rest of the North-East.”
The office has been built in line with RITES’ vision to continuously establish its presence in proximity to its projects, and to enhance Connectivity, Accessibility, and Mobility Everywhere in the North-East.
RITES’ ongoing projects across the Seven Sisters include Institutional Buildings for NIT-Meghalaya, and IIM-Shillong as well as building works for Oil India Limited at Duliajan, Assam. Additionally, RITES recently signed an MoU with the Government of Mizoram for infrastructure works.
PUNE (Metro Rail News): Work on MahaMetro’s Pune Metro project is on the progress and Pune Metro has crossed a crucial milestone on Saturday, 18th June. On 6th March 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated two 12 km routes of Pune metro project from Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal corporation station to Phugewadi station and Vanaz station to Garware college station. Since then, in the last three and a half months, the Pune Metro has completed a milestone of 10 lakh passengers on these routes.
The Pune Metro has had to carry out a total of 5,581 rounds on both routes to cross the 10-lakh passenger population. These include 2483 rounds on Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation station to Phugewadi station route and 3098 rounds on Vanaz station to Garware college route.
The Pune metro work is going on at a fast pace. The remaining advanced routes are planned to be completed by December 2022. Apart from this, the entire metro work including all the roads is expected to be completed by April 2023.
Director of the Maha Metro, Dr Brijesh Dixit expressing his happiness said ” today’s million passenger numbers have become possible due to the tremendous enthusiasm of Punekars. The enthusiastic collaboration of Punekars has made it possible for the Pune metro to complete 75 per cent of the work and open the route for passengers as a surprise. With the support of Pune Municipal Corporation, Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation and all government departments, the remaining phases of Pune Metro will soon be opened for passengers. “
With the crossing of the 10 lakh ridership mark, a new concept of “Celebration on Wheel” has been introduced for Pune Metro passengers. For this, citizens need to reserve the metro 7 days in advance.
"Celebration On Wheels" आता धावत्या #पुणेमेट्रो त साजरे करा तुमचे आनंदाचे क्षण.
HYDERABAD (Metro Rail News): The L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad) Limited has closed operations on all the lines today amid the ongoing protests against the Agnipath armed forces recruitment scheme. In an announcement, the L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad) Limited on its official Twitter account stated that operations in all three lines of the Hyderabad Metro Rail were suspended on Friday, June 17 due to protests.
“Due to some disturbance in the city, all operations in all three lines of Hyderabad Metro Rail stand suspended till further notice,” L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad) Limited tweeted.
On Friday the violence escalated at the Secunderabad railway station where hundreds of protesters set a train on fire and vandalised the station. The protesters went on to destroy the station by setting fire to the East Coast Express, destroying stalls and other railway property.
Hundreds of protestors blocked the railway tracks and platforms damaging the food stalls, luggages, and partially torching a goods compartment.
MUMBAI (Metro Rail News): Mumbai is going to get its first travelator soon which will link Mahalaxmi railway station on Western Railway with Sant Gadge Maharaja Chowk Monorail station. It is the terminal station of the fully-elevated corridor which runs on a 20-kilometre stretch up to Chembur.
Presently the travelators are installed at airports only as they are convenient for people travelling by air and carrying luggage. Metropolitan Commissioner SVR Srinivas said, “We had considered extending the monorail up to Mahalaxmi station and the new Metro 3 underground station. We are now going forward with plans to cross this distance by a travelator, which will be installed at a higher elevation by MMRDA.”
According to an official, the travelator is going to be about 500 meters long with two sections of 3 meters each in width for the bi-directional movement of passengers. The cost of installing the travellator will be around Rs 6 crore is far lower than Rs 150 crore, which is needed to extend the monorail, despite the fact that it can carry two lakh passengers per day, the official informed. This decision has been taken as after exiting the underground network which is being constructed, the distance between Sant Ghadge Maharaj Chowk Monorail station and Mahalaxmi Metro station is 700 meters therefore not many people are assumed to walk this distance to board the Monorail.
Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MMRC) is currently constructing an underground metro station that will connect with Mahalaxmi station which is going to increase the footfall of Monorail.
Delhi Metro (Metro Rail News):Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) will start adopting all necessary measures such as deploying flying squads, to ensure Delhi Metro commuters follow the Covid-19 protocols after the capital started witnessing a spike in Covid cases.
According to the data, Delhi reported more than 7,100 Covid-19 cases in the last 10 days and the positivity rate has climbed from 1.92 per cent on June 7 to 7.01 per cent on June 15. On Wednesday, 17th June the capital recorded 1,375 Coronavirus cases which is the highest number of daily cases in a month and zero death. According to the officials of DMRC, flying squads have been deployed at metro stations to keep a check on commuters who do not follow Covid norms.
Delhi Metro’s Principal Executive Director Anuj Dayal informed that the deployed flying squads are randomly checking commuters and ensuring that people adhere to Covid-appropriate behaviour. Meanwhile, the commuters are being provided with hand sanitizers on the metro stations. If any additional guidelines are directed by the DDMA, then DMRC will implement them as well, he added. According to Dayal, around 2,158 people were penalized for creating nuisance in May (under section 59 of the O&M act) and under the same section, over 500 passengers have been penalized in the first week of June.
According to the DMRC officials, to raise awareness among commuters, many social media campaigns were also launched. A DMRC official informed that Delhi Metro has also carried out multiple campaigns on its official social media platforms like twitter to raise awareness about the Covid-19 pandemic situation. Meanwhile, regular announcements are also being made inside Delhi Metro trains and on the stations for the same such as wearing masks inside the metro premises is mandatory.
CHENNAI (Metro Rail News): The Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL), on 15th June, submitted its undertaking to the Madras High Court which states that all the metro stations will be made disabled-friendly within six weeks. This decision comes after an audit report was submitted which found deficiencies in providing a barrier free access to passengers with special needs.
The undertaking was given before the Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice N Mala when a petition seeking orders to the CMRL to implement relevant sections of Persons With Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995, according to which it is compulsory for organisations to make transport systems accessible to the disabled.
The counsel that submitted the petition stated that the CMRL had failed to comply with the audit report for providing necessary facilities whereas CMRL informed the bench that they had taken certain measures to provide ramps and other facilities for disabled persons and have now promised to follow the audit report and will the gaps in the services.
According to the petitioner, Vaishnavi Jayakumar, CMRL’s 32 metro stations were lacking facilities for disabled persons such as ramps, lifts, handrails, ticket counters and tactile pathways. These facilities were either absent or non-accessible.
The CMRL had violated section 41 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 2016 and Rule 15 of Rights of Persons with Disabilities Rules, 2017. They are under a legal mandate to make sure that all their structures strictly adhere to the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Urban Development in 2016, Jayakumar stated.
HYDERABAD (Metro Rail News): As part of a passenger engagement initiative, L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad) Limited (L&TMRHL) has come up with an innovative concept of Metro Bazar, an experiential shopping opportunity for metro passengers. Metro Bazar was launched on 15th June by the Chief Guest, Swati Lakra IPS, Addl. DGP, Women Safety Wing, SHE Teams & Bharosa, Telangana State, in the presence of the Guest of Honour, NVS Reddy, MD, HMRL; and the special guest, KVB Reddy, MD & CEO, L&TMRHL along with other HMR officials, at Ameerpet Metro Station.
The first edition of Metro Bazar is being organised in partnership with Women Envision Council for Entrepreneurship (WomENvision), a Section-8 company, working towards empowering women entrepreneurs. In order to promote women entrepreneurship, Hyderabad Metro Rail has provided the space to WomENvision at a no-cost basis for this engagement.
Metro Bazar is being organised in the format of a flea market and is available at the concourse level of Ameerpet metro station for 15 days starting from 15 June 2022. Sixteen exhibitors from WomENvision will be showcasing their products at the Metro Bazar. Passengers can explore fourteen kiosks decked up with value-for-money products ranging from apparel and artworks to beauty and herbal products among many others. Available from 11am till 9 pm, Metro Bazar would also offer a host of food items and beverages to relish. After Ameerpet, Metro Bazar would be available at other metro stations for 15 days duration each.
Speaking during the event, Swati Lakra IPS, Addl. DGP, Women Safety Wing, SHE Teams & Bharosa, Telangana State, said, “It is heartening to note that Hyderabad Metro Rail is promoting gender parity and women empowerment in such a big way. Metro Bazar is indeed one good example of HMR’s focus on women entrepreneurship. Such initiatives go a long way in nurturing and providing avenues to women who want to do something in their lives. My best wishes to Metro Bazar and I hope the passengers will enjoy the products on the offer, which I have seen and found to be reasonably priced.”
Speaking on the occasion, NVS Reddy, MD, HMRL, said, “I commend L&TMRHL for introducing Metro Bazar, an innovative mode of passenger engagement providing them a shopping experience on the go. It is also heartening to note that this concept promotes entrepreneurship in the state. This will also motivate our passengers to use the metro more often.”
KVB Reddy, MD & CEO, L&TMRHL said, “We are happy to launch Metro Bazar, which is in line with our consistent effort to elevate the passenger experience. We are glad that WomENvision is partnering with us for the first edition of Metro Bazar, which will help in empowering women to be financially independent.”
Praveena Thota Naidu, Founder Director, WomENvision, said, “We are thankful to HMRL and L&TMRHL for this opportunity with the first edition of Metro Bazar and for patronizing the unsung women entrepreneurs of WomENvision who aspire to make it big with their vision and passion.”
NEW DELHI (Metro Rail News):Quality Buildcon has won the contract for package CC-141R for which The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) had opened the financial bids on 25th May, 2022. The firm which will become the contractor will work on the expansion of the metro depot for the trains under phase-4.
The scope of this contract includes Design, Fabrication, Supply and Erection of Pre-Engineered Steel Structure and Roofing for expansion of Workshop/other buildings at Shastri Park and Najafgarh Depots of Delhi MRTS project of Phase-3.
DMRC had issued the tender notice for the expansion package in December 2021 with an estimated cost of Rs. 14.16 crore and a 9-month completion deadline. The lowest 5 bidders for this contract are as follows:
Shastri Park Depot houses the trains which operate on the Red line that is from Rithala to Shaheed Sthal under phase-1 whereas the Najafgarh Depot houses the trains running on the blue and grey lines.
BENGALURU (Metro Rail News): Ten firms have proposed their bids for detailed project report (DPR) for the 37-km metro line that will link Sarjapur and Hebbal.
The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL), floated the tender for DPR a month after CM Basavaraj Bommai announced this new line in his speech. BMRCL is now evaluating the bids. The firm which had proposed their bids for the DPR includes RITES Ltd, Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System, Korea Railroad Technical Corporation, Urban Mass Transit Company, Consulting Engineers Group, Tractebel Engineering Pvt ltd, and Aarvee Associates, BARSYL etc.
The DPR will take at least a year for completion and another 6 months to get approval from the government as it needs the authorization of the BMRCL board, the finance department and the state cabinet.
The Sarjapur line was previously decided as a part of Metro Phase-3 and an announcement for this was made in the 2018-2019 budget. But, in 2021, the DPR for the Phase-3 line was finalised and only two corridors were declared.
On 4th March 2022, CM Bommai in his speech said that action would be taken to prepare a DPR in 2022-2023 for the development of a new 37 km long new Metro line linking Sarjapur to Hebbal via Agara, Koramangala and Diary Circle at an estimated cost of Rs 15,000 crore.
