The Najafgarh – Dhansa Bus Stand section on the Grey Line of Delhi Metro was inaugurated today by the Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs& Petroleum and Natural Gas Shri Hardeep Singh Puriand the Chief Minister of Delhi Shri Arvind Kejriwal,via video conferencing. The Dhansa Bus Stand is an underground station and an extension of the presently operational Dwarka- Najafgarh Corridor.
Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Shri Kaushal Kishore, Transport Minister of Delhi Shri Kailash Gehlot, Member of Parliament Shri Parvesh Sahib Singh, Secretary, Housing & Urban Affairs Shri Durga Shankar Mishra, and MD, Delhi Metro Shri Mangu Singh were also present on the occasion.
Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs, Sh. Hardeep Singh Puri speaking on the occasion said that the metro rail system has delivered a world class transportation system to our citizens. Delhi Metro has been a trailblazer, in that sense, with its ridership reaching 65 lakh per day during pre-Covid era, while the overall ridership in Metros across the country was 85 lakhs.
Shri Puri said that as we gradually recover from the Covid – 19 pandemic, enhanced mobility requirements of the masses in our cities will play an important role in taking the economy forward. The connections such as the one to Dhansa will play a vital role, in reaching to rural areas also. The gap between the rural and urban parts of Delhi is now being bridged with such connections which are going deep into the interior areas of the national capital. He also called upon the Delhi Government for expediting the approvals of pending projects of Delhi Metro.
The Minister mentioned that at present around 740 kms Metro line is operational in the country and with the Metro system seeing a massive surge in its network it will be more than 900 kms by 2022. More than 1000 Kms of Metro lines is under construction in the country, and it will reach 2000 Kms target in the near future.
Shri Purisaid that the inauguration of today’s 1.2 kilometres stretch extension might be small from the point of view of network length, but from the perspective of providing enhanced connectivity to the interior parts of the national capital, this new extension is an important milestone. The Najafgarh – Dhansa Bus Stand corridor will take the Metro to many new suburban localities in the Najafgarh area of Delhi, he added.
The Minister said that Metro has changed the face of urbanization as labourers working in Delhi or in big cities now can have affordable dwellings in the outskirts or villages near the cities and can commute daily for work on Metro saving on money and time.
Secretary, Housing &Urban Affairs, Shri Durga Shankar Mishra addressing the event said that two vital landmarks in the Metro rail history of the nation were achieved with the operationalization of the first ever driverless Metro train and the implementation of the National Common Mobility Card facility on the Airport Express Line of the Delhi Metro. He said that with the 110 kms becoming the driverless stretch, it has become the longest driverless stretch in the world.
