If the Commissioner of Metro Rail Safety (CMRS) gives its go ahead, the ITO metro station could be opened within a few days. After almost a delay of four months, the Commissioner is finally going to inspect the Mandi House to ITO stretch of the Badarpur Line on Tuesday.
Owing to this, on Tuesday, metro train services will run on single line for about an hour between Central Secretariat to Mandi House section of Line-6 to facilitate the inspection of Mandi House to ITO section of the 9.37 kilometre Central Secretariat to Kashmere Gate line.
“Tomorrow, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:15 p.m., the services between Central Secretariat and Mandi House section will be run on single line which may cause little delay in services in this small section. In order to avoid delay during this period, passengers are advised to use the Rajiv Chowk station and Central Secretariat station as the interchange point for travelling from Blue Line (Noida/Vaishali – Dwarka Sector 21) to Line-6 (Mandi House – Badapur) and vice versa,” said a metro a official. Normal services on this section will be resumed after 12:15 p.m.
Sources in the corporation suggested that if the CMRS gives its clearance for all categories including operations, fire safety, public facilities and so on, the ITO station could open as early as the end of June.
The much-awaited ITO station is expected to have a ridership of 40,000. The Central Secretariat-Kashmere Gate line, of which the ITO station is a part, is an extension of the existing Badarpur-Central Secretariat Line (violet line).
The ITO station is a part of the “heritage corridor” connecting Central Secretariat to the Kashmere Gate line. The line will have stations having historical importance like Lal Quila and Jama Masjid.