Stations on Delhi Metro’s Blue line to get major revamp

Delhi Metro Rail Corporation’s Blue Line (Dwarka-Vaishali/Noida Electronic City), which is also its third oldest corridor, is all set to get a major upgrade soon. The work to renovate six of its busiest stations will begin first and then be expanded to other stations in a phased manner. The stations to be revamped in the first phase are Pragati Maidan, Indraprastha, Mayur Vihar Phase-I, New Ashok Nagar, Janakpuri East, and Kirti Nagar. This corridor became functional 17 years ago in 2005, when the first section of the Blue Line, between Barakhamba Road and Dwarka, was opened to the public. In the next five years, the nearly 65km-long corridor expanded further inside Dwarka sub-city towards the southwest and Noida and Vaishali to the east. While the major part of the corridor was completed as part of Delhi Metro’s Phase I and II expansion by November 2010, a relatively smaller segment between Noida City Centre and Noida Electronic City was opened in March 2019. With an average daily passenger count of over 9.4 lakh last month, Blue Line is the second busiest corridor of the 391 km-long Delhi Metro network. Along with Yellow Line (Samaypur Badli-Huda City Centre), it caters to 50 per cent of Delhi Metro’s total traffic. The Blue Line stations have faced wear and tear after so many years of operation, and according to DMRC, now require restoration. This restoration work is likely to be wrapped up in a year and a half and is expected to cost Rs 127 million. See also: Chennai officials impressed by Kochi’s single-ticket systemMMRC initiates high-voltage charging of 8 Metro-3 coaches