Metro rail link to fast-track commute to Delhi airport

As Hyderabad and Bangalore struggle to improve access to their new airports due to start operations this year, New Delhi is investing in a metro link that will allow commuters to travel to the upcoming international airport in 21 minutes.

To start at the capital's central business district of Connaught Place, this link will offer check-in facilities and a journey that will cost only Rs 180, almost half the current cost of a cab ride to the airport.

This 23-km Airport Express Metro Rail project was awarded last week by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to a consortium led by the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG). The consortium includes CAF of Spain, a leading manufacturer of rolling stock.

The project involves a partly elevated, partly underground link between the Connaught Place metro station via Dwarka and the new international airport due to be ready by 2010.

The blueprint also involves check-in facilities at both Connaught Place and Shivaji Stadium, a few kilometres from Connaught Place, with facilities for over 100 check-in counters each and a conveyor belt that will transport luggage to the train and then the airport.

Apart from Connaught Place and Shivaji Stadium, passengers without luggage can also check in at Dhaula Kuan.

The airport stations will be one level down from the regular station and the trains will run at a 10-minute frequency with a capacity to carry 40,000 passengers an hour in each direction.

DMRC will design and construct the basic civil structure (at a cost of around Rs 3,500 crore) and the ADAG consortium will be responsible for financing, design, development and operation of the metro (Rs 2,500 crore).

ADAG will have to pay DMRC both a concession fee and an annual percentage of the revenue that it collects on a graduated scale.

The trains on the route can travel at a maximum speed of 150 kmph (they are more likely to travel at 120 kmph) and stop at six stations where passengers can board. For security reasons, however, passengers will be allowed to disembark only at the airport.

The trains will run for 20 hours a day with a brief break between 10 am and 2 pm, which is an off-peak period at the airport.

Under the plan, an automated conveyer belt will fill up at least half or one wagon (each train will have six "" one more than those on the regular metro service) in two and a half minutes.

"The airport metro link has value both for passengers who come from various areas of north India in trains to catch a flight abroad, like farmers from Punjab going to Canada, since they will now have a direct link, and business travellers," said an ADAG spokesman.