Christmas gift: Botanical Garden to Kalkaji in less than 20 minutes

New Delhi: This Christmas, DMRC will play Santa for Delhi and Noida residents by introducing the first ‘driverless’ metro trains on the Kalkaji Mandir-Botanical Garden stretch of Magenta Line. The 12.64km stretch of the Janakpuri West-Botanical Garden corridor will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 25.
The opening of this section will bring down the travelling time between Noida and south Delhi by 33 minutes to a mere 19 minutes as commuters from Noida won’t have to go to Mandi House to get on the Violet Line (Escorts Mujesar-Kashmere Gate).This stretch would also bring Noida closer to Faridabad, Haryana. Once the entire 38.23 km long corridor from Botanical Garden to Janakpuri West is opened, likely by March 2018, Noida would come much closer to Gurgaon too, with an interchange available at Hauz Khas.
Although Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) didn’t confirm the itinerary of the inauguration, the Prime Minister may travel by a train from Botanical Garden.
The opening of the section would also mark the completion of 15 years of Delhi Metro’s operations.
The Kalkaji Mandir-Botanical Garden section will be Delhi Metro’s first ever corridor to be operated using the Communication Based Train Control (CBTC) signalling technology, which will facilitate movement of trains with a frequency of 90 to 100 seconds. While the trains can be operated on automated mode without the requirement of a driver, for the time being, drivers will be present in the trains.
DMRC plans to run six-coach trains on this corridor which will also feature platform screen doors. The corridor will also feature ‘open gates’, where the flaps on the automatic fare collection (AFC) gates would remain open. The flaps would close only if a commuter tries to pass through without touching a token or smart card on the gate.
With the opening of this line, Botanical Garden metro station of the Magenta Line would come up next to the existing Blue Line (Dwarka Sector 21-Noida City Centre/ Vaishali), making it the first interchange metro station outside Delhi.
According to sources, the corridor was ready for opening after getting the go-ahead from the Commissioner for Metro Rail Safety (CMRS) after an inspection between November 13 and 15. However, DMRC received confirmation from the PMO only after the Gujarat election results were declared, sources said.