New Delhi:
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal flagged off the much-awaited Pink Line of the Delhi Metro on Wednesday, along with Union Ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and Harsh Vardhan.
At the inaugural event, Kejriwal said that his government will soon clear the long-pending Phase-IV of the Delhi Metro too, indicating that there were some ‘issued of financial vulnerability’ on some of its routes.
The Chief Minister, after ceremonially flagging off the Pink Line which runs from Majlis Park to Durgabai Deshmukh South Campus on Wednesday, said, “Metro is the lifeline of Delhi, and it is an important mode of transport for the city. The Delhi government will soon give clearance for the Phase-IV project. There are issues of financial viability on some of the routes.â€
On the recent fare hike, the CM said that the Delhi government and the Centre should ‘sit together and find out a solution’.
The newly inaugurated Pink Line, which is Line 7 of the Delhi Metro project, has 12 stations on it and is a 59-km long of the Phase-III. The line runs from Majlis Park to Shiv Vihar corridor. A small segment of this line in the Trilokpuri area in East Delhi is on the pavement of clearance due to some land issues and other local people matters.
Puri, on the Phase-IV project and rapid rail system connecting the city with Meerut, said that the AAP-led national capital government was ‘sitting on the project’. He said, “We are finding a solution. The solution is where we are not getting support from the Delhi government over the metro projects, we have decided that we we will do it ourselves. Rail corridors, we will do on our own. If they (Delhi government) are not willing to approve a project or provide funding, we are finding out a solution for it.â€
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Puri had last year said that the delay of the Phase-IV of the Delhi Metro had pushed the cost by Rs 12,000 crore, adding that the cost of the Delhi-Meerut Rapid Rail Transit project had also reached heights by Rs 1,000 crore.
An official in the CM Office had said that the Kejriwal government had given in-principal approval for the Phase-IV project but the files were pending in the finance department of the Delhi government.
The Pink Line has 12 stations on it, namely Majlis Park, Azadpur, Shalimar Bagh, Netaji Subhash Place, Shakurpur, Punjabi Bagh West, ESI Hospital, Rajouri Garden, Mayapuri, Naraina Vihar, Delhi Cantt, and Durgabai Deshmukh South Campus.
The line has three interchanging points, they being Azadpur (on Yellow line), Netaji Subhash Place (on Red Line), and Rajouri Garden (on the Blue Line).
