Delhi Metro's new 'Heritage Line' now open to public: All you need to know

The Delhi Metro made a major foray into the Walled City of the national capital, as the ITO-Kashmere Gate 'Heritage Line' was thrown open to public on Sunday. Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Union urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu flagged off this much awaited line of Delhi metro through video conferencing at Metro Bhawan in Delhi on Sunday. Union minister of science and technology Harsh Vardhan was also present at the event. 

Stations on the ‘Heritage Line’

The new 'Heritage Line' has three stations — Delhi Gate, Jama Masjid and Red Fort. The new line, which is essentially an extension of the Violet Line that run between Faridabad and ITO presently, will take considerable load off the Chandni Chowk and Chawri Bazar stations of the Yellow Line. Janpath, Mandi House and ITO stations on this line have already been opened for the public that comprises of 4.2 km section of the 9.37 km-long-corridor. 

Length and distance

After inauguration of the Heritage line, the total length of Escorts Mujesar- Kashmere Gate line will now be 43.40 km (length of ‘Heritage Line’ being 9.3 km). One can reach ITO from Kashmere Gate within 10-12 minutes.

With the opening of this line, the total metro network currently operational in Delhi and NCR is now 217 kilometres with 162 stations. In India, 346 kilometres of Metro Rail is operational at present. With this launch of ‘Heritage Line’, Kashmere gate has also become the first station to facilitate seamless integration of three metro lines, namely, the Yellow, Red and Violet Line.

Background

The Heritage Line was given clearance by NMA (National Monuments Authority) on February 13, 2013. Though the stretch missed a number of deadlines throughout its course, and was expected to be open to the public last year.

It was originally scheduled to be completed by December 2015 but missed several deadlines before its first trial-runs could be conducted in August last year.

The inauguration

According to a report of Times of India, the corridor saw a ridership of 9,806 from 12 noon till 8pm on Sunday after the inauguration. Lal Quila was the busiest with a footfall of 3,472, followed by Jama Masjid (3,107), Kashmere Gate (2,073) and Delhi Gate (1,154). 

The ‘Dream Gates’

With this extended version, the authorities have also facilitated the installation of entry and exit gates that can be operated via smartphone. The new gates, also known as the 'Dream Gates', have been installed in two stations, Lal Quila and Jama Masjid.

Commuters entering the station can use a QR code that is generated by filling in details of the journey on digital payment portals like Paytm. Subsequently, the machine-readable code grants commuters entry/exit from the desired station.