Delhi Metro: Mayur Vihar-Trilokpuri section launched, Pink Line now single, longest corridor

The Delhi Metro’s Pink Line started operating as a single corridor on Friday with train services launched on a 1.5-km stretch between Mayur Vihar Pocket I and Trilokpuri Sanjay Lake stations where construction work was delayed over land acquisition issues.

Till Thursday, trains operated on two separate sections — Majlis Park- Mayur Vihar I and Trilokpuri – Shiv Vihar — of the 58.6-km Pink line, which is currently Delhi Metro’s longest corridor. From 3 pm this afternoon, the entire line between Majlis Park and Shiv Vihar will work as one.

Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal flagged off the first train on the missing link during a launch ceremony held virtually on Friday. In their brief speeches, both stressed that the bridging of the missing link, which is short in terms of length, was a very significant step forward.

“It is a small but critical stretch. DMRC Managing Director Mangu Singh met me several times as worked towards sorting out the rehabilitation issues pertaining to this stretch,” Kejriwal said. Puri said, “The stretch might appear small, but in terms of providing connectivity, is it very crucial.”

The missing link could not be bridged for over two years due to land acquisition and rehabilitation issues. Houses of 108 families in Trilokpuri’s Block 15 fell on the disputed 1.5 km long stretch. Metro struggled to relocate them to nearby flats. Eventually, a lottery was held for allotment of flats to the affected families under the supervision of the Delhi High Court.

Now, people travelling from west Delhi and south Delhi areas such as Shalimar Bagh, Punjabi Bagh, Mayapuri, Delhi Cantonment, Sarojini Nagar, South Extension, Lajpat Nagar will be able to reach the transport hub of Anand Vihar ISBT and railway station directly.

On the other hand, north-east and east Delhi residents staying in localities such as Shiv Vihar, Maujpur, Jaffrabad, Welcome, Krishna Nagar, Karkardooma, Vinod Nagar, Mandawali and Mayur Vihar will be able travel directly to the Sarai Kale Khan ISBT and Nizamuddin railway station and south campus colleges of the Delhi University.

However, it is learnt that trains will slow down between Mayur Vihar I and Trilokpuri stations as work on the signalling system has not been completed yet. The signalling will switch to automated mode by mid-September, till then, trains will run at an average speed of 16 to 17 km/hour along this 1.5-km stretch.

This is mainly due to the fact that trains cannot yet run on automated modes such as Automatic Train Protection System (ATP), Automatic Train Operating (ATO) and Unattended Train Operation (UTO) between these stations. Out of the nine operational corridors of the metro, UTO mode covers only the Magenta Line, where every aspect of train operations are controlled from the central command Centre of the DMRC. Drivers remain on board to intervene in the event of emergencies.

ATO mode covers Yellow, Violet and the Airport Express Lines. Under this mode, drivers only press the departure command after closing doors at every platform. In the case of Blue, Red, Green lines, trains run on ATP mode. Drivers on these lines are in complete control of trains, starting from speed, opening and closing of doors. The target speed is, however, decided by the ATP system, which means drivers cannot run trains above a certain limit.