Switch-hit: Delhi Metro Pink Line to be longest at 71.6 km with 46 stations; record 12 interchange hubs

NEW DELHI: When Delhi Metro's Majlis Park-Maujpur corridor becomes operational this month, the Pink Line will have the highest number of interchange stations (12) in the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation's urban train network.

The extension will make the Pink Line the longest at 71.6km with 46 stations.At present, Delhi Metro has 29 interchange stations across the network. The Pink Line's 10 current interchange stations are at Azadpur, Netaji Subhas Place, Punjabi Bagh West, Rajouri Garden, Dilli Haat-INA, Lajpat Nagar, Mayur Vihar I, Anand Vihar ISBT, Karkardooma and Welcome. It will get more at Maujpur and Majlis Park.

The Blue and Yellow Lines, the busiest in the network, have 10 and eight interchange stations, respectively.

The oldest, Red Line, which connects Rithala to Shaheed Sthal (New Bus Adda), has four interchange stations. The shortest, the 5.5km Grey Line (Dwarka to Dhansa Bus Stand), has just one interchange station.Interchange stations allow travellers to switch from one line to another without exiting the station. DMRC's analysis last year showed that while 20-30% of passengers entering or boarding a particular line complete their journey on the same corridor, the rest transferred to or switched lines to reach their destination.

The analysis in terms of passenger journeys for the period from Oct 2023 to March 2024 on an average daily basis determined that the majority of passengers use the first metro line to transfer to other lines.The Pink Line, which has the highest number of stations, was opened in five sections. The first stretch (Majlis Park-Durgabai Deshmukh South Campus) was opened in March 2018. Three others started operations by Dec 31 of that year.

However, due to problems in acquiring land in Trilokpuri, the line ran as two separate corridors: Majlis Park-Mayur Vihar Pocket 1 and Shiv Vihar-Trilokpuri. After the matter was resolved, the final section — the 0.85km Trilokpuri-Sanjay Lake to Mayur Vihar Pocket 1 — was inaugurated on Aug 6, 2021.Now, with the sixth segment from Majlis Park to Maujpur to open, the Pink Line will become the first in DMRC's network to take a circular route.After three priority corridors under the Phase IV expansion are finished, DMRC will have 47 interchange stations. The Tughlaqabad-Aerocity corridor, which is the new Golden Line, will have seven interchange stations at RK Ashram Marg, Pulbangash, Pitampura, Pulbangash, Azadpur, Majlis Park and Haiderpur Badli Mor. The Janakpuri West-RK Ashram segment, which is an extension of the Magenta Line, will have three interchange stations at Delhi Aerocity, Chhatarpur and Tughlaqabad.Currently, Kashmere Gate is the lone station on the Delhi Metro network that connects three lines: Red Line, Yellow Line and Violet Line. However, Azadpur, Lajpat Nagar and New Delhi are on the way to becoming triple interchange stations under the Phase IV expansion.Three other new corridors were approved last year as part of the Phase IV expansion: Lajpat Nagar to Saket G Block (extension of the Golden Line), Inderlok to Indraprastha (extension of the Green Line) and Rithala-Narela-Kundli (extension of the Red Line).

These three corridors, whose construction is yet to start, will increase the number of interchange stations.In total, DMRC is laying around 112km of new tracks in the fourth phase of its expansion in the city. Phase IV's first metro station, Krishna Park Extension on Janakpuri West-RK Ashram line, was opened for passenger services on Jan 5 this year.