Delhi CM leads colleagues in metro ride

Delhi political luminaries, led by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today, had the first experience of line 3 of the Delhi Metro, the longest metro route connecting the heart of the Capital, with Dwarka sub-city, on the outskirts, which is being inaugurated on December 30.

Dikshit, accompanied by other local leaders, took a ride on the newest section of Delhi Metro, which has 22 stations and has been completed in a record time of 30 months at a cost of around Rs 3000 crore.

The chief minister described the 22.8 km addition with a travelling time of around 40 minutes to the metro network in the Capital as a "very apt and appropriate new year gift" from the government of Delhi, which "the prime minister will give away to India."

Prime minister Manmohan Singh will inaugurate the Barakhamba-Dwarka line 3 on December 30, and it will opened for the public on December 31.

"It was the dream of DMRC to open this line before January 2006, and working against time they have managed to get it ready for inauguration on December 30," Dikshit, who also inspected some of the stations en-route to Dwarka from Barakhamba, andwas briefed by metro officials, said.

Dikshit was accompanied on the metro tour by Transport Minister Haroon Yusuf, MP Krishna Tirath and MLAs Ramakant Goswami, Mukesh Sharma and Raman Lamba.

The chief minister, who addressed a press conference at the end of the guided tour, dismissed "doubts" about feeder buses for the metro rail, saying feeder buses would be in place in a minimum of five to six months.

The maximum time it could take would be one year, she said. "If there is a delay in putting a feeder bus system in place, it is because there is a certain government procedure that has to be followed," Dikshit said.

Recently, DMRC Chief E Sreedharan had written to the Delhi chief minister expressing concern that in the absence of feeder buses, the metro service was not achieving the expected ridership.

Dikshit said with line 3, phase I of the metro network had been completed, and phase II of the rail system would be completed by 2009, in time for the 2010 Commonwealth Games to be held here.

She remembered the contribution of Sreedharan to the rail network, saying he was one of the guiding forces behind the Metro. She said the Metro Rail had been synergised with construction of flyovers and while 34 flyovers had been completed so far, seven were under construction and 12 more were there in the pipeline.

Dikshit also pointed out that the metro rail would improve the shopping experience of delhiites by connecting many of the malls and important market places. "Escalators, overbridges, underbridges are all being planned to join the malls and attention is being given to this.

"We don't want you to walk even two steps," she added.

On whether metro would go to neighbouring haryana and up, dikshit said her governement was for connecting the ncr with the rail network, but the decision had to be taken by the centre.

Asked if luggage would now be allowed in metro, with the airport going to be connected by the network, dikshit said it was under consideration. But she said, "luggage in metro is being discouraged as it could lead to security problems Security concerns are paramount."