With the deepest station, and the steepest escalator, the upcoming Janakpuri West-Kalkaji Mandir stretch of the Magenta Line brings many firsts to the Delhi Metro network.
In a media preview of the 24.8-km section of the Magenta Line on Thursday, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) unveiled the section, which would finally provide a connection between Noida, Delhi and Gurugram. The section will be inaugurated on Monday and will be thrown open for public the next day.
Connecting Noida, Delhi and Gurugram
DMRC estimates show commuters will now be able to travel from Noida to Gurugram in just 50 minutes, as against the one-and-a-half hours earlier. Instead of changing lines from Rajiv Chowk, commuters can now use the Magenta Line and interchange for the Yellow Line (Samaypur Badli-Huda City Centre) from Hauz Khas, Metro officials said.
“Commuters will save over half hour travelling from Botanical Garden to Huda City Centre,” DMRC spokesperson Anuj Dayal said.
Deepest station
Apart from providing interchange facilities, the new section of the Hauz Khas station will also become the deepest station in the Delhi Metro network.
The depth of the new station is 29 metres, and it connects with the operational station of the Yellow Line through a ramp. Before this, Chawri Bazar station was the deepest station in Delhi, which went 25 metres below ground level.
Steepest escalator in country
At the other end of the line, Janakpuri West also has some unique features. The station has an escalator with the highest escalation point of 15.65 m — which is as high as a five-storey building — making it the steepest escalator in the country.
“The horizontal length of the escalators is 35.32 m and the height is equal to a five-storey building. The weight of each escalator is 26 tonnes and a 250-tonne crane was brought in for their installing,” a DMRC statement said.
The longest stretch to be inaugurated by the DMRC at once
The 24.82 km-long stretch between Janakpuri West and Kalkaji Mandir will be the longest stretch to be inaugurated by the Metro at once. This stretch is a part of the 38.2km Janakpuri West-Botanical Garden corridor.
This will make the recently opened Durgabai Deshmukh South Campus-Majlis Park section of the Pink Line the second longest stretch to be inaugurated.
‘Knowledge Corridor’
The opening of the entire Magenta Line on Tuesday will connect four of Delhi’s important universities — Jamia Milia Islamia, Amity University, IIT Delhi and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).
This will come as a major advantage to students, especially when the admissions to undergraduate and graduate courses begin by the end of the month.
“IIT has a dedicated station, but the JNU campus is also less than a kilometre away from the Munirka station. The Jamia Milia Islamia station caters to the students of its university and the students of Amity University will have Okhla Bird Sanctuary station as their nearest station,” a DMRC spokesperson said.
