Delhi: Chhatarpur MMI ‘open’ after wait of 3 months

NEW DELHI: In July this year, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) completed a major makeover of the Chhatarpur metro station, as part of which a green public plaza for pedestrians and halt and go parking bays for buses, Gramin Sewa vehicles and autorickshaws were created under the multi-modal integration (MMI).
A group of residents of nearby Vasant Kunj and some members of United Residents Joint Action of Delhi (URJA) “inaugurated” the MMI facilities on Saturday.DMRC, on the other hand, said that the facilities were always open for commuters.
Work on the station’s redevelopment project began last year and was completed by July this year. “The contractors took a lot of time to build the MMI facilities. It has been four months since it was created, but nobody was allowed to use it,” said Amit Aggarwal, project in-charge, URJA. “We took it up with DMRC and Delhi Traffic Police. When we asked Gramin Sewa and auto rickshaw drivers why they do not go inside, they said private guards deployed by DMRC stopped them,” he said.
“We reached the station in the morning and told DMRC officials that we were going to open the facilities. We asked them if they had any objection and they said we could do it,” Aggarwal said. He said that while the facilities were open, guards used to stop para-transit vehicles from entering the station premises.
In a statement, URJA said that Delhi Metro’s integrated transport model (ITM) at Chhattarpur station, that had been lying unutilised for over four months, was inaugurated on Saturday by public.
URJA said that the idea behind the ITM was to create a transport hub that would provide commuters with a variety of options like buses, three-wheelers and Gramin Sewa right at the metro station. “This ensures that the commuters are able to board their choice of transport from the station premises, without having to look for public transport on the main roads. However, after spending crores of public money on this facility, it had not been used for several months for unknown reasons,” an URJA statement said.
However, a DMRC official said “It is clarified that the said integration plan at Chhatarpur station was already operational for the benefit of commuters.”