Pink Line's Shiv Vihar-Trilok Puri stretch to be thrown open to public on October 31

This stretch will be a major boon for the eastern and northern fringes of the national capital. Three interchange facilities at Welcome (With Red Line), Karkarduma and Anand Vihar ISBT (with Blue Line) will boost connectivity of areas such as Shiv Vihar, Gokul Puri, Maujpur, Jaffrabad etc. In the future, this stretch will get connected with the presently operational Majlis Park – Lajpat Nagar section of Pink Line, said Anuj Dayal, Executive Director, Corporate Communications, DMRC.

"We have some land issues near Trilokpuri. We have constraints there. We have no crossover available. For the moment we will run a single line there. Every third train from IP Extension will be send to Trilokpuri. The frequency will be 15 minutes and 36 seconds," he said.

"Reversal of trains is only possible at Mayur Vihar 1 station. We would launch the Lajpat Nagar to Mayur Vihar section even before the Trilokpuri section is cleared, hopefully by December," he told Moneycontrol.

"We are yet to receive permissions for land in Trilokpuri from DDA. But once these land issues are resolved, the train will travel seamlessly from Maujpur," he said.

Also, passengers travelling from Shiv Vihar and moving towards IP Extension, will be required to get off at Maujpur, change the platform and take the train travelling to IP Extension. "The Maujpur Station is a four track island station having provision of connection from Maujpur to Mukundpur, a corridor proposed in Phase-IV of the Delhi Metro project,” explained Dayal.

With the opening of this section, the Delhi Metro network will become 314 kilometres long with 229 stations. After the inauguration of this section, Delhi Metro will have spread over 80 kilometres of new lines this year.

Three interchange stations This section has three interchange stations at Anand Vihar ISBT, Karkarduma and Welcome. The facility of interchange of Metro trains between line 7 (Pink Line) and line 3/4 (Blue Line) is available at Anand Vihar ISBT and Karkarduma Station and between line7 and line 1 (Red Line) at Welcome Station. The Maujpur Station is a four (4) track station having provision of connection from Maujpur to Mukundpur, a corridor proposed in Phase-IV of the Delhi Metro project.

Challenges Due to uneven twists and turns in this alignment, Delhi Metro had to construct as many as 10 curves on this stretch that passes through very congested areas like  IP Extension, Anand Vihar, Welcome, Seelampur, Jaffrabad and Maujpur.

"This was a difficult line to construct as there were many sharp curves. Also, we did not want to destroy too many houses, properties and getting land was an issue," said Dayal.

Another major engineering challenge was encountered when the viaduct had to cross the Anand Vihar Railway Station of the Indian Railways, one of the busiest stations in terms of ridership and number of trains.

"DMRC engineers had to ensure that the train schedule of the Indian Railways was not disturbed during Pink Line's construction," Dayal said.

The Vinod Nagar Metro depot will primarily cater to the services on the Pink line (Majlis Park – Shiv Vihar). The Depot at Vinod Nagar is located near National Highway 24 and is one of two depots of Pink line of Phase 3.  Due to scarcity of land, the depot functions are divided into two, there is land on either side of Ghazipur Nallah.

The area of the depot is approximately 18.2 hectares and for the first time in the country, a double deck stabling shed has been constructed where stabling of trains has been planned for two levels, he added.