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Metro Rail services between Mandi House and ITO stations in Delhi will begin very soon with the Urban Development Ministry amending rules to allow operations on single-line sections.
The Metro Railway General Rules, 2013 have been amended and the changes notified to allow operations on single-line sections. The move will benefit Metro rail services in the national capital and Chennai.
The construction work on the single-line Mandi House-ITO section was completed by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation in January this year. But operations on this 971-metre section could not be started as safety inspection could not be carried out as per provisions of the Metro Railway General Rules.
The UD Ministry held several rounds of discussions with the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS), Commissioner of Metro Rail Safety (CMRS), Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, the Ministry of Civil Aviation which is the controlling authority of CRS, Ministry of Railways and experts to resolve the issue.
Finally, at an inter-agency meeting chaired by Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, it was decided to amend the 2013 Rules to enable operations on single-line metro sections pending commissioning of the other line.
The amendments were carried out in consultation with the Ministry of Railways and the Ministry of Law & Justice, officials said.
The Commissioner of Metro Rail Safety would soon carry out safety inspection and metro services between Mandi House and ITO would be started immediately thereafter.
The move is expected to benefit 22,000 passengers daily to begin with and 31,000 by 2021 enhancing DMRC's annual revenue by Rs 8 crore.
The amendment to the Rules also benefits Chennai Metro enabling operations on the 2.88-km section between Ashok Nagar and Alandur after safety inspection, thereby facilitating metro connectivity between Koyambedu and Alandur (7.22 km). This will be the first section of Chennai Metro to become operational.
