New Delhi: Officials of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) recently held a series of meetings with other stakeholders to finalise the route alignment for the Rithala-Bawana-Narela corridor, which is to be built under the Phase-IV of the Metro Rail project, officials said on Monday. Narela is one of the three sub-city projects helmed by the urban body and is situated in northwest Delhi.
“Narela sub-city is being developed to provide for the increasing housing requirement of people in Delhi and will have over 25,000 flats under various group housing pockets, officials told news agency PTI.
In order to boost development and bring connectivity infrastructure of Narela sub-city at par with other areas of Delhi, the DDA is actively working with DMRC to bring metro connectivity to the far-flung areas of north-west Delhi, they said.
Phase IV of the Delhi Metro
The Union Cabinet in March 2019 had approved three out of the six corridors of the Delhi Metro’s Phase-IV which will further improve connectivity in the national capital. The other three proposed corridors of phase-4 which have not yet been approved by the Cabinet are Rithala-Bawana-Narela, Inderlok-Indraprastha and Lajpat Nagar-Saket G Block.
The work on Phase-IV had begun in December 2019 with a groundbreaking ceremony, but it was hit after the outbreak of COVID-19 in March 2020 in Delhi.
At present, the DMRC is undertaking construction work on 65.2 km of three priority corridors, spanning 45 stations, under this project, viz., Janakpuri West-RK Ashram Marg (28.92 km), Majlis Park-Maujpur (12.55 km) — which are extensions of the already operational Magenta Line and Pink Line respectively; and Tughalakabad-Aerocity (23.62 km) that is being built as ‘Silver Line’, connecting the operational Violet Line and Airport Line from the respective ends.
The DDA said its housing schemes of the Narela sub-city were “less preferred” in comparison to other areas of Delhi, in the absence of a public mass rapid transportation system. The proposed metro route would improve the accessibility and connectivity to the people of Narela, it added.
“DDA has sanctioned funds for the implementation of metro in Narela and has released Rs 130 crore to the DMRC for timely implementation of the proposed metro route,” the urban body said in a statement.
“The DDA is also coordinating with NHAI and DMRC for integrated construction of metro and Urban Extension Road for cost-efficient public means of transport,” it added.
