Delhi Metro’s Phase-4 work has been affected due to the COVID-19 pandemic! However, the ongoing project will get delayed only by a few months and this would not entail much cost escalation, DMRC Chief Mangu Singh has said. Mangu Singh was quoted in a PTI report saying that the Phase-4 Delhi Metro project has been affected due to the pandemic and the lockdown, but it would not get delayed by more than two-three months. Also, this will not entail much cost escalation, Singh said. According to him, these are challenging times but the team of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) team utilized the COVID-19 lockdown time to work on detailing and designing the Phase-4 project so that whenever the situation improved, Delhi Metro would be ready.
Earlier it was reported that during the 169-day period of Delhi Metro suspension, the DMRC had suffered losses worth around Rs 1,300 crore. According to the DMRC Chief, after the COVID-19 outbreak hit the national capital, labourers/workers started going back to their native places. However, Singh said, almost 80-90% of the labourers are now back in the unlock process. Also, all safety precautions are being ensured at the working site. Under Phase-4 project’s approved segment, a total of 61.679 kilometres of new Delhi Metro lines will be developed across three different corridors consisting of as many as 45 metro stations.
The Cabinet had approved R K Ashram-Janakpuri West, Mukundpur-Maujpur, and Aero City-Tughlakabad corridors. The other three Delhi Metro phase-4 proposed corridors which have not been approved by the Union Cabinet yet are Inderlok-Indraprastha, Rithala-Bawana-Narela, and Lajpat Nagar-Saket G Block corridors. The construction work of phase-4 started with a groundbreaking ceremony held at Haider Badli Mor on 30 December last year. On the 28.92 km long Janakpuri West-R K Ashram Marg corridor, which is Magenta Line’s extension, piling work had begun for construction of 10 stations. Meanwhile, to monitor the construction of the phase-4 work, a huge office had been set up at Haiderpur Badli Mor metro station.
Three interchange stations will come up as part of the first corridor work- Madhuban Chowk (Red Line), Peeragarhi (Green Line), and Haiderpur Badli Mor (Yellow Line). Additionally, the corridor of Janakpuri West-R K Ashram Marg will have three more interchange facilities at Azadpur (with Yellow Line), Majlis Park (Pink Line) and R K Ashram Marg (with Blue Line). A total of 15 stations will come on the Aerocity-Tughlakabad corridor.
In the month of August, the preliminary work was commenced for the construction of the fifth metro bridge over the Yamuna river, on the Majlis Park-Maujpur corridor. The new bridge, which will be 560 m-long, will come up between two existing bridges on the Yamuna river that are Signature Bridge and Wazirabad Bridge. Interestingly, it will be the first-ever metro bridge over the Yamuna river to be constructed using the technique of cantilever construction.