GHAZIABAD: Come March and commuters from Delhi’s Dilshad Garden can enjoy seamless journey right into the heart of Ghaziabad in just 16 minutes as 9.63 km Dilshad Garden-New Bus Adda corridor gets ready for inauguration.As per 2014 DPR, per day ridership projection on this corridor will be 1.2 lakh passengers with New Bus Adda set to become the busiest station which will see daily ridership of 50,000 passengers.The Dilshad Garden-New Bus Adda is an extension of Rithala-Dilshad Garden Red Line which will have eight stations, all on elevated platform at an average height of 13.5 meters from the ground level. The eight stations are Shahid Nagar, Raj Bagh, Rajendra Nagar, Shyam Park, Mohan Nagar, Arthala, Hindon River Station and New Bus Adda.Anuj Dayal, DMRC’s executive director, corporate communications said that 35 , six-coach trains will run on entire 35.72 Km Rithala-Dilshad Garden-New Bus Adda route(Red Line) route. “On Dilshad Garden-New Bus Adda route during peak hours trains will be available at every 6 minutes 12 seconds” said Anuj Dayal, executive director, corporate communications, DMRC.“Journey from Dilshad Garden-New Bus Adda will take about 16 minutes and on entire Rithala-Dilshad Garden-New Bus Adda route it will take 57 minutes” added Dayal. Normally a road commuter on Dilshad Garden-New Bus Adda stretch takes roughly an hour due to traffic congestion all along this stretch including GT Road.Taking about the challenges DMRC faced during developing Dilshad Garden-New Bus Adda route, Dayal said that non stop traffic on GT Road left very little time to carry out work on this stretch. “Transporting girders each weighing 162 tons from Anand Vihar casting yard to site with the help of 500 ton capacity cranes on GT road stretch and then resting it on elevated platforms was a real challenge as GT road witnesses heavy traffic round the clock ” said Dayal. “We were left with a window of about 4 to 5 hours during night and we have to put in all our man power at disposal to get the work done” added Dayal.In April last year, a steel girder erected for building a foot overbridge at the Mohan Nagar metro station had collapsed leaving five people injured. The Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) after an inquiry had concluded ‘gross negligence’ on the part of DMRC that led to the incident, a charge which the DMRC had strongly refuted. “After Shanghai and Hong Kong metro DMRC is the largest in world in terms of network and as of now Delhi metro spread in NCR is about 390km long and the Mohan Nagar mishap though was unfortunate was something which we could not avoid from happening” said Dayal.All along 9.63 Km there 695 girders on 401 pillars were placed which took about four and half years and 1000 manpower to complete the project.Talking about the uniqueness of this corridor Dayal says “unlike in any other corridor rail track on six out of eight stations on this line lies on the middle of the road on elevated platform with stations on either side which are connected by FOBs which could be used by metro commuters as well and pedestrians to cross the road.” “The stations on this route conforms Indian Green Building Certification norms which are powered by solar energy” added Dayal.The work on this corridor now being officially declared over by DMRC, it now awaits inauguration which according to GDA officials and administration is likely to take place any day after 25 February.

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