Airport line, snags, Phase III works kept Delhi Metro Rail Corporation busy in 2013

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation witnessed an eventful 2013 as it took over responsibility of the Airport Metro line's operations, other than kick-starting construction works for Phase III projects but frequent disruption of services due to technical snags hit passengers hard.

DMRC took over the operations of the 22.7-km-long Airport Express Link on July 1, 2013 following a notice by the Delhi Airport Metro Express Private Limited (DAMEPL), a special purpose vehicle of Reliance Infrastructure Ltd, that it would cease to operate after June 30.

Eight coach trains on the Dwarka Sector 21 'NOIDA City Centre/Vaishali (Blue line) was introduced from August 19.

DMRC also inducted its first six coach train on the Dilshad Garden to Rithala (Red Line) from November 24.

As part of its works under projects of Phase III, the Delhi Metro will start trial runs for Central Secretariat, Mandi House section of the Central Secretariat, Kashmere Gate corridor on December 30, 2013.

The Central Secretariat, Mandi House section will be opened for commuter operations by March this year. This section will tremendously help in decongesting the Rajiv Chowk Metro station as the commuters traveling to Dwarka, NOIDA/Vaishali from the Central Secretariat-Badarpur line will be able to change trains directly at Mandi House without doing twice at Central Secretariat and Rajiv Chowk.

The Dwarka-Vaishali/Noida City Centre metro line was disrupted several times in the year gone by owing to technical problems in Overhead Electrification or Signaling, leading to chaos and harrowing experiences for commuters.

After the breakdowns on several occasions, DMRC constituted a high level committee to investigate the problem.

Construction work for Phase III projects on the upcoming Dwarka-Najafgarh Metro corridor started on September 12 on the elevated section of the corridor between Dwarka and Najafgarh depot.

The Dwarka-Najafgarh section will be 4.4-km-long with three stations. The length of the elevated section will be 2.75 km; the ramp towards the underground section will be 595 m while the underground section will be 1.085-km-long.

The Delhi Metro and the Haryana Urban Development Authority signed an agreement on February 2 for the extension of now operational Inderlok-Mundka corridor (Line 5).

The 11.181-km-long corridor between Mundka and Bahadurgarh will be entirely eelevated with seven stations with four in Delhi and three in Haryana and will run on standard gauge.

The DMRC also launched the facility of online recharge of Metro smart cards on May 9.

On July 12, DMRC launched a dedicated mobile number for its passengers to enquire about the belongings they lost while travelling in the Delhi Metro.

The Delhi Metro also launched a mobile application dedicated to its commuters on August 22 which gives detailed information about the Metro routes, fares, timings among other details, available on Android and Apple operating systems.

Besides, DMRC signed MoUs with various organisations for mutual contribution toward public service.

The Delhi Technological University (DTU) signed a MoU with DMRC on March 19 for jointly taking up projects in the fields of design development, research, indigenisation of technology among other things.

DMRC and Delhi Tourism and Transportation Development Corporation (DTTDC) signed an MoU on July 17 for jointly promoting tourism in the capital city.

Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) signed an MoU with DMRC on September 17 in order to carry out projects for the production of renewable solar power in the Delhi Metro premises.

Over 26 lakh commuters travelled by the metro system in Delhi in the year gone by. Chief Minister of Pakistan's Punjab province Shahbaz Sharif along with other delegates took a metro ride on December 12.

Vizag Metro Rail DPR gets in-principle nod

VISAKHAPATNAM: The Centre has given an in-principle nod for the preparation of a detail project report (DPR) for the proposed Rs 4,000 crore Vizag metro rail project, Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) commissioner MV Satyanarayana said here on Monday.

Interacting with media persons in his chamber, the civic chief said that the cost of the DPR alone would be Rs 1.6 crore and the civic body would soon forward a report on the 'terms of reference' to the Centre for the finalization of a consultancy agency to prepare the DPR for the project.

The civic chief expressed the hope that the project would kick off in 2014 if all the formal works, including the DPR, are completed quickly. According to him, the metro rail project was the need of the hour for a fast developing city like Visakhapatnam, which is now spread over 681.96 square kilometres and has a population of 2,191,811, which is almost half of Vizag district's population.

On GVMC's achievements for the year, the civic chief said the civic body had sincerely tried to complete various projects and schemes during 2013 and would try to finish the pending works by the end of the financial year in March 2014.

"Already 12 out of the 21 projects sanctioned under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) have been completed at a cost of Rs 1,663.97 crore so far as against the total cost of Rs 2,121.11 crore for the 21 projects. The remaining works are under various stages of progress," Satyanarayana said.

Escalators at monorail stations only by March

Manthan K Mehta,TNN | Jan 2, 2014

MUMBAI: Monorail operations are expected to begin in the city within a month. However, commuters may face a little discomfort at the stations in the absence of escalators that are likely to be installed by the end of this financial year.

MMRDA additional metropolitan commissioner Ashwini Bhide said, "We have already procured the escalators and these are likely to be installed by March 2014."

The first phase of commercial operations will begin between Chembur and Wadala, covering a total of seven stations. A senior MMRDA official said, "In each station, two escalators will be installed from ground level to concourse and two more from concourse to the platform."

The escalators were not a part of the original contract and the decision to instal these was taken three years after the construction work on the project began.

Monorail work to shut Lower Parel road

Starting from January 15, 2014, motorists should avoid Lower Parel – Currey Road stretch as Mahadev Palav Road outside Currey Road will be closed for vehicular traffic for almost a month.

The reason for closure is construction of second phase of monorail by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).

“Guideway beam launching activity needs to be done for which it is necessary to shut Mahadev Palav Marg for vehicular traffic. The traffic police department has given the go ahead for launching of the guideway beams,” said Ashwini Bhide, additional metropolitan commissioner, MMRDA.

The launching work is part of the aim to meet the deadline for the second phase of the project by March 2015.

The closure of road for vehicle movement is necessary due to the road being narrow. Attempts will be made to complete the launching work within a short time.

During the launching phase, traffic will be diverted to other roads like S bridge, Chinckpokli and Parel.

In December 2012, the development authority had temporarily closed the same road for foundation work of monorail pillars on either ends of Mahadev Palav Road.

There are 10 stations along the 11.20km long second phase between Wadala and Jacob Circle, namely, Sant Gadge Maharaj Chowk (Jacob Circle), Currey Road, Mint Colony, Ambedkar Nagar, Naigaon, Dadar East, Wadala Bridge, Acharya Atre Nagar, Antop Hill and Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar.

International brands to be opened this year

This 2014, International brands are opened in SM, Ayala and Robinsons Malls:

• Kitchenaid Store

the KitchenAid store now offers virtually every essential for the well-equipped kitchen with a collection that includes everything from countertop appliances to cookware, ranges to refrigerators, and whisks to wine cellars.

Bromance.

Call it Mumbai Metro, not Reliance Metro: MMRDA to Rinfra

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) seems to have put its foot down by asking Reliance Infrastructure (RInfra)-led Mumbai Metro One Private Limited (MMOPL) to change metro rail logo and name from “Reliance Metro” to “Mumbai Metro”.

“On December 31, we have sent a letter to RInfra, asking them to change the logo of metro rail from Reliance Metro to Mumbai Metro,” revealed Dilip Kawathkar, spokesperson for the development authority.

According to MMRDA authorities, the demand is well within the concession agreement signed between the state government and RInfra as the fine print states that the project should be titled as ‘Mumbai Metro’, which the MMOPL has been ignoring.

On May 4, 2013, dna had reported about the dispute over logo and refusal by RInfra to change its name.

When contacted, an MMOPL spokesperson said, “We have not received any such official communication from MMRDA. Display of the brand name of the promoter of the company, which includes Reliance and MMRDA, is well within the contract conditions and industry practice.”

According to RTI activist Anil Galgali, who has been trying for rectification of logo and project name, metro rail is a public-private partnership and like ‘Mumbai Monorail’, this too should be called ‘Mumbai Metro’. The logo has to change to ‘Mumbai Metro’, no other name is acceptable, he maintains.