Kejriwal, Venkaiah Naidu flag off Delhi metro Heritage Line; route to open for public today

Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Union urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu flagged off the much awaited Heritage Line of Delhi metro through video conferencing at Metro Bhawan in Delhi on Sunday. Union minister of science and technology Harsh Vardhan was also present at the event.

Speaking on the occasion, the chief minister thanked Central government and Union minister Venkaiah Naidu. “I want to thank central Govt and M Venkaiah Naidu for helping whenever we reached out to them for things related to Delhi metro,” Kejriwal said.

Drawing attention to need for better public transport in Delhi, Union minister Venkaiah Naidu said, “ Focus would be on more cycling track, better public transport in Delhi. I want to see cycle track in entire Delhi.” He added that the culture of every member in family having a car is not good. “People should introspect,” he said.

The ITO- Kashmere Gate section of the Delhi Metro, also known as the Heritage Line, has three key stations at Delhi’s landmark historical monuments. These are Delhi Gate, Jama Masjid and Lal Qila. Commuters will be able to take this line from today.

The Heritage Line was given clearance by NMA (National Monuments Authority) on February 13, 2013.

Janpath, Mandi House and ITO stations on this line have already been opened for the public (4.2km section of the 9.37km-long-corridor is operational).

With the opening of this section, Kashmere Gate will emerge as the biggest interchange station, as passengers travelling on Rithala-Dilshad Garden, Samaipur Badli-HUDA City Center and Faridabad line can change from here. As a result, Rajeev Chowk, which caters to over 5 lakh commuters every day, will also be decongested and the DMRC is expecting to reduce the footfall here to 3.5 lakh.