ITO-Kashmere Gate line may open soon

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Metro, which is facing a delay in the launch of its two new corridors paralleling the Ring Road, is hoping to get at least the Heritage line off the mark. Delhi Metro spokesman Anuj Dayal said, “We are hoping to open the line from ITO to Kashmere Gate before August 15, provided we get all the clearances. This is an internal deadline though, and we have asked engineers to expedite the work.”
The Heritage line, which is an extension of the Violet corridor from Central Secretariat, goes via heart of the city, including the congested Daryaganj area.It has stations at Janpath, Mandi House, ITO, Delhi Gate, Jama Masjid, Red Fort and Kashmere Gate. The corridor was originally supposed to be completed by December 2015, but got delayed by several months due to a number of reasons, including a change in alignment at Jama Masjid. Work in fact, has been slow on the corridor, with the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) facing some major engineering challenges from Delhi Gate to Jama Masjid area.
The station at ITO had been thrown open to the public last year. The new August-15 deadline comes after Delhi Metro chief Mangu Singh recently admitted that work on the rest of the new network -- including the upcoming corridors from Majlis Park to Shiv Vihar and Janakpuri (west) to Botanical Garden— was running behind schedule.
According to Singh, only one of the new corridors, line 8 (Janakpuri west to Botaical Garden), is likely to meet the December 2016 deadline. The other corridor has been delayed “seriously”, Singh had said at the time.
The ITO to Kashmere Gate section was supposed to be commissioned by October this year, but sources said that the DMRC was hoping to throw it open much before that. The major clearance required would be from the commissioner of metro rail safety.
A number of problems have been plaguing Delhi Metro on the construction of the extension of the Violet line.