Thaindian News

New Delhi, Jan 7 (IANS) Delhi Metro’s Yamuna Bank-Anand Vihar line, close to the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border, was opened for public Thursday.
“The Metro started its operations at 6 a.m. We expect a good ridership,” a metro official said.

The official claimed that the frequency of the trains was normal at eight minutes. However, commuters complained that the trains were coming at an interval of 15 minutes.

A commuter said: “We had come with high hopes. But trains are coming after an interval of 15 minutes only.”

Expected to ease traffic flow in densely populated east Delhi and help thousands of commuters coming from Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh to the national capital daily, the 6.25-km elevated line was inaugurated Wednesday by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and union Urban Development Minister S. Jaipal Reddy.

This is the fourth line of the Metro network and has five stations - Laxmi Nagar, Nirman Vihar, Preet Vihar, Karkardooma and Anand Vihar. The last two will have parking facilities.

Two more stations - Kaushambi and Vaishali - in Uttar Pradesh will be added by September this year, before the 2010 Commonwealth Games start.

Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has also constructed two pedestrian-overbridges at the Laxmi Nagar and Nirman Vihar stations to provide commuters safe access to the stations. It has also proposed property development at the Karkardooma and Anand Vihar stations.

Delhi Metro Chief E. Sreedharan had Wednesday said: “We are expecting a ridership of 60,000 on the line and it will be very beneficial for east Delhi residents.”

The line is expected to ferry 100,000 passengers by the end of this year, said metro officials, adding that they will allot three to four trains for the new route.

Delhi Metro, which began services on a small scale in December 2002, now ferries nearly 900,000 commuters a day. With the new line, it now runs over a network of 96 km and has 83 stations.