Officer-goers in city cheer as ITO Metro station opens

In a major relief to office-goers, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has thrown open the much-awaited ITO station to public on Monday evening.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Union Ministers Venkaiah Naidu and Harsh Vardhan and BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi launched the services on the ITO station.

Kejriwal could not resist to make a political remark. “The Delhi Metro is the perfect example of the Centre and state cooperation and this kind of partnership should be exercised in every field,” said Kejriwal.

The section from Mandi House to ITO on the 9.37 km long Central Secretariat–Kashmere Gate corridor was opened for commuters from 6 pm.

Trial runs between Mandi House and ITO started in December last year and the construction of civil work was completed in February 2015.

This is a first ever single line extension on the entire Delhi Metro network. The single line operations was not permitted under Metro Railway General Rules which caused the delay in its inauguration. So the Urban Development Ministry amended the Metro Railway General Rules, 2013, to allow operations on this stretch.

The ITO Metro station will cater to a large number of office-goers.
Apart from people commuting to their offices at Police Headquarters, PWD, UGC and Bal Bhawan, it will also benefit sports enthusiasts who often come to watch football and cricket matches at the Ambedkar and Feroz Shah Kotla stadiums located at a walking distance.

As per the detailed project report, approximately 22,000 passengers are expected to use the ITO Metro station by 2016. The number is likely to cross the 31,000 mark in 2021. This is expected to increase revenue of Delhi Metro from passenger fare by about Rs 8 crore per annum.

The section from Central Secretariat to Mandi House has been made operational last year. The construction work is in progress on the section between ITO and Kashmere Gate.

Upon completion, this corridor will connect Kashmere Gate with Ballabhgarh in Haryana via Badarpur and Faridabad forming a 46.6-kilometre long corridor. Trial runs are currently in progress between Badarpur and Escorts Mujesar in Faridabad.

Technical snag

The Metro rail service on the Dwarka-Noida City Centre route was disrupted on Monday morning due to a technical snag near Ramakrishna Ashram Marg Metro station, an official said.

Hundreds of commuters on Delhi Metro’s Yellow Line route, from Jahangirpuri to Huda City Centre, too face inconvenience due to a technical snag earlier, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation official added.

A Metro train developed a snag while running between Karol Bagh and Ramakrishna Ashram Marg stations on the Blue Line. However, the Metro services returned to normal on both the Yellow and Blue lines after a delay of over 30 minutes.

Delhi Metro recorded the highest footfalls of over 27 lakh commuters on August 6, 2014, with over 10 lakh passengers travelling between Dwarka Sector 21 and Noida City Centre/Vaishali and 9.62 lakh commuters on Jahangirpuri-HUDA City Centre route.