Delhi Metro Phase III to be almost fully operational by March 2018

Phase III stretches through Pink and Magenta Lines of the city

The Delhi Metro's Phase III, an ambitious public transport intervention, will be almost fully operational by March 2018, bringing vast areas of the national capital into the fold of its fast expanding network.

Stretches of the Pink and Magenta Lines, which will together measure over 90 km with 61 stations, will be thrown open starting this October and the entire corridors will be functional by next year.

The 58-km-long Pink Line, which will connect Majlis Park to Shiv Vihar running along the arterial ring road that encircles the city, will be opened in stages between December 2017 and March 2018, according to the latest Phase III status report.

However, a section of the corridor between Nizamuddin and IP Extension in east Delhi may not be operational by March as it is stuck due to issues pertaining to land acquisition.

"The date for Nizamuddin to IP Extension section will be worked out after resettlement and rehabilitation issues at Trilokpuri are settled," the report says.

The Pink Line will connect northwest Delhi's Mukundpur to northeast Delhi's Shiv Vihar cutting across various south Delhi areas including Sarojini Nagar, INA, South Extension and densely populated parts of east Delhi such as Mayur Vihar Phase I, Vinodnagar and Karkardooma.

The 34-km-long Magenta Line, will be thrown open in stages between October and March 2018. It will connect west Delhi to Noida via IGI Airport's domestic terminal.

Under the phase-III expansion project being implemented at a cost of around Rs 40,000 crore, a total of 140 km of network will be added to the current coverage of 213 km.

The Phase-III network will also add 15 interchange stations to the existing nine and will take the count of total stations in Delhi-NCR to a whopping 227.

Trial runs along certain stretches of Magenta Line had begun last year itself while on Pink Line, along a 6.5-km-long segment to be precise, it started on June 22.

Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) chief Mangu Singh had announced last year itself that both these lines will be launched in a staggered manner, meaning, small sections will be made operational instead of the entire corridors being thrown open in one go.