New Delhi: A metro corridor has been proposed to provide high-speed connectivity between new government offices and other social infrastructure being developed as part of the Central Vista Redevelopment Project, and the rest of the city, ThePrint has learnt. This also aims to decongest central Delhi.
The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) is planning a seven kilometre-long underground metro corridor to connect all the 10 new government office buildings, India Gate, Bharat Mandapam and proposed Yuge Yugeen Bharat Museum at the North and South blocks with the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC)’s 400 km operational network, a senior ministry official, who wished not to be named, told ThePrint.
The proposed corridor will be an extension of the 12.3 km Inderlok-Indraprastha metro corridor, which was approved by the Union cabinet in March this year. It will connect the existing Indraprastha metro station with the proposed museum (near North Block) and multiple stations in between. The underground section is likely to pass through India Gate, along the Kartavya Path.
Explaining the proposed alignment, Anuj Dayal, principal executive director, corporate communications, told ThePrint that it will be a standard gauge as it is an extension of the existing line. “The section between Indraprastha and the museum is likely to have a station at Bharat Mandapam, two stations at India Gate C-Hexagon, one station at Kartavya Path and one at the museum.”
He added that this is a tentative plan. “The DMRC has been asked to finalise the alignment.”
“As the project is taking shape, a need is felt to provide mass transit facilities in the area. The idea is to decongest central Delhi areas, especially in and around India Gate, by discouraging the use of private vehicles,” a senior ministry official told ThePrint.
“The footfall in the area has increased manifold ever since the Kartavya Path was inaugurated after redevelopment. The footfall is only going to increase once the museum is made operational,” he added.
Earlier this year, the MoHUA asked the DMRC to get a traffic management study conducted for the area and suggest mobility solutions.
“The DMRC has been asked to work out the alignment for the proposed corridor. It will have multiple stations to facilitate movement of people. Earlier, we had planned a small scale transit system which was only for government employees. While the plan now is to provide metro connectivity, we are exploring the security issues as it is a high-security area,” the official quoted above said.
The 12.3 kilometre-long Inderlok-Indraprastha corridor, a part of Delhi Metro’s Phase 4, is an extension of the Brigadier Hoshiar Singh-Inderlok corridor, also known as the Green Line.
Metro needed to decongest Central Delhi
The Central Vista Redevelopment Project is expected to result in vehicular traffic in the area because close to 51 ministries and departments are expected to operate from the 10 CCS buildings. In addition to this, the Centre has decided to develop North and South blocks as a museum, proposed to be the world’s largest.
A senior ministry official told ThePrint that ever since the redeveloped Kartavya Path was opened to the public in 2021, the daily footfall has increased to between 50,000 and one lakh. During weekends, the footfall at India Gate is over 1.5 lakh, the official said.
The initial plan of the Narendra Modi government was to develop a people mover (a small-scale metro-like transit system) connecting just the 10 office buildings that are to be constructed as part of the Rs 20,000 redevelopment project.
While it was to be connected to the Central Secretariat metro station, the people mover was proposed exclusively for government employees for seamless movement between various buildings on both sides of the Kartavya Path.
(Edited by Radifah Kabir)
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