Delhi Metro completes underground tunnel in south Delhi

The Delhi Metro has completed work on yet another underground tunnel - 1.56 km long - connecting South Extension and Lajpat Nagar areas in south Delhi, it was announced on Thursday.

The tunnel would be the second longest in the Phase 3 network connecting Majlis Park in north Delhi to Shiv Vihar in east Delhi.

The longest tunnel in this phase would be from Nizamuddin to Ashram (1.6 km) on the same corridor, a Delhi Metro statement said.

"During the course of construction of the tunnel, the Tunnel Boring Machine crossed through thickly populated areas of Kotla and Defence Colony. The maximum depth of the tunnel in this drive was approximately 21 meters in the Defence Colony area," the statement said.

The Lajpat Nagar Metro station is being developed into a major interchange hub where commuters would be able to change trains between the Faridabad-Kashmere Gate corridor (currently operational between Badarpur and ITO) and the Majlis Park-Shiv Vihar corridor.

More than 54,000 commuters are expected to use the station next year.

The Majlis Park-Shiv Vihar Metro section is a 58.596 km long corridor that will cover most localities along the city's arterial Ring Road. This section is expected to be operational by the end of 2016.