Line will be opened for general public in a lacklustre ceremony

No netagiri at Gurgaon Metro event

Line will be opened for general public in a lacklustre ceremony

Their presence makes an event newsworthy.
But on Monday, the Qutub Minar- Gurgaon Metro line will be thrown open to the general public without politicians or fanfare.

Representative photo

For the first time in the history of the Delhi Metro, the corridor will be flagged off without a minister or a VIP.
In the past ten years, CM Sheila Dikshit had been an invitee in the inaugural ceremonies of various Metro lines. The opening ceremonies have also been graced by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, PM Manmohan Singh, AICC chief Sonia Gandhi and in recent times S Jaipal Reddy, the union urban development minister.u00a0

But this time around, no politician has been invited by the Delhi Metro for the inauguration, said Delhi Metro sources.

Even when Delhi Metro rolled into Noida, two separate flagging off ceremonies were held. The Delhi portion of the stretch up to New Ashok Nagar Metro station was inaugurated by Sheila Dikshit while the Noida section was inaugurated by Uttar Pradesh CM Mayawati.

The Gurgaon section has been in the news for the past six months and it was inaugurated by Bhupinder Singh Hooda in January this year. However, Delhi Metro failed to open the line after that.

Then the Metro authorities tried to open the line in one go from Central Secretariat to Gurgaon. Later on, this plan was also shelved. Now, after safety audit by Commissioner Metro Rail Safety, the line will be finally opened on Monday.u00a0

When contacted, a Delhi Metro official said: "The Gurgaon section of the line has already been inaugurated by Haryana Chief Minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, in January. After one month we are going to open the entire stretch. So, the plan is to organise a ceremony only when entire stretch is opened," said the official.

Line of control

DMRC will initially put five trains on the 14.47-km corridor that will connect Gurgaon with south Delhi, which will run at a frequency of 12 minutes, a DMRC spokesman said. The ten stations on this elevated section are Qutub Minar, Chhattarpur, Sultanpur, Ghitorni, Arjangarh, Guru Dronacharya, Sikanderpur, MG Road, IFFCO Chowk and HUDA City Centre. The trains will not stop at the Chhattarpur Metro station initially, as this station is likely to be opened for the public by August. The remaining part of the corridor from Qutub Minar to Central Secretariat is expected to be opened by the end of July. The line has been built at a total cost of Rs 3,720 crore, and is expected to add over 3.4 lakh people to the Metro system by 2011.

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