Delhi has been experiencing phenomenal growth in population in the last few decades. So, the number of vehicles has been increased to 40 lakhs, these are more than that of Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai put together. Today traffic on the roads of Delhi is a mix-up of cycles, scooters, buses, cars and rickshaws, resulting fuel wastage, environmental pollution and increasing number of rod accidents.
To rectify the situation the government of India and the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi, in equal partnership have set up a company on 03.05.1995 named Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (DMRC).
This necessitates a policy shift to discourage private modes. So, introduction of a rail based (MRTS) Mass Rapid Transport System is called for. MRTS will result in time saving for commuters, reliable and safer journey, reduction in atmospheric pollution, reduction in accident rates, reduced fuel consumption, reduced vehicle operating costs and increase in the average speed of road vehicles.
The proposed Mass Rapid Transport System (MRTS) is going to be one of the most eco friendly projects in Delhi. With international consultants Ms. PCI (Japan) is associated with DMRC which is, building MRTS aims at using the latest technical knowhow available in Metro systems worldwide. The general consultants consisting of (PCI-PBI-TON1 CHI-JARTS-RITES) is overseeing the construction management. The total .and requirement of the land for the construction is about 458,256 hectares.
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DMRC has two types of corridors, underground, partly elevated and partly on the ground, having a total length of 52.60 kms. Out of which 11 kms. is underground from Delhi University to Central Secretariat There are 41 stations on the entire corridors. There are three different routes of MRTS, Vishwavidyalaya-Central Secretariat, Shahdra – Barwala and Tri Nagar- Nagloi.
There are certain other routes under consideration with the DMRC. The train will run on broad gauge. Number of passenger; using the service per day is estimated to be 19.5 lakhs. The train will run at a speed 30 kms per hour. The coaches will be 3.2 M wide. The maintenance depots for underground corridor are at Khyber Pass and Nagloi, for surface and elevated corridors at Trinagar and Barwala.
The Chairman and Managing Director of the project are Sh. K. Kosal Ran and Sh. E. Sreedharan respectively. All the three corridors are scheduled to complete by March, 2005.
The first phase of the project from Shahdra to Tis Hazari has already been inaugurated by Prime Minister of India, Sh. Atal Bihari Vajpayee The contract for the Metro Section between Central Secretarial to ISB’ has been awarded to consortium of five companies led by Ms Dyckrhoi & Widmann AG, Germany while section between Delhi University to ISBT has gone to a consortium led by Ms Kumagi (Japan). All contractors have Indian partners.
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At the underground corridor Metro Stations will be located 12.8 meters below ground level, except Chawri Bazar station which will be located at 20 meters below ground level. All the stations at every corridor will be air conditioned; interchanging of commuters between Metro Corridor and rail Corridor will be at ISBT station. The completion cost of the Delhi Metro Project is Rs. 8155/- crores.