The 25.6 km-long Janakpuri West-Kalkaji Mandir stretch of the Delhi Metro’s Magenta Line is all set to be inaugurated next week. Once opened, it will take the total length of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) network to 278 km with 202 stations.

Passenger services on the segment, which has 16 stations, will begin on May 29 at 6 am from the Kalkaji Mandir and Janakpuri West stations simultaneously. Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs (Independent Charge) Hardeep Singh Puri and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will officially inaugurate the corridor on May 28 at 4.30 pm at the Nehru Enclave metro station. The dignitaries will travel to Hauz Khas station after the inauguration.

This section will be the longest stretch to have been opened so far in Delhi Metro Rail Corporation’s (DMRC’s) Phase-III project. With the opening of this stretch, the entire 38.2 km-long Janakpuri West-Botanical Garden Magenta Line corridor, covering the city’s arterial Outer Ring Road, will become operational.

On December 25, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated the over 12-km-long stretch of the Magenta Line’s Botanical Garden-Kalkaji Mandir corridor. Kalkaji Mandir is an interchange facility with the Violet Line (Kashmere Gate- Escorts Mujesar). The highlights of the Janakpuri West-Kalkaji Mandir corridor will be the two new interchange facilities at — Janakpuri West (with the Dwarka-Noida/Vaishali Blue Line) and Hauz Khas (with the HUDA City Centre-Samaypur Badli Yellow line).

The domestic terminals of the Indira Gandhi International airport here will also get connected to the metro network through Terminal 1-IGI airport station. Commuters travelling from Gurgaon will now be able to change trains at Hauz Khas station to reach south Delhi and Noida.

Residents of Noida will also get direct connectivity to the domestic terminal of the airport. The stations on this new corridor are: Janakpuri West, Dabri Mor, Dashrathpuri, Palam, Sadar Bazar, Terminal 1-IGI Airport, Shankar Vihar, Vasant Vihar, Munirka, R K Puram, Hauz Khas, IIT, Panchsheel Park, Chirag Delhi, G K Enclave, Nehru Enclave.

Out of the 25.6 km-long stretch, 23 kms is underground and the rest is elevated. Only two stations — Sadar Bazar and Shankar Vihar — are elevated and the remaining stations are underground, the DMRC said.

“After the opening of this section, 88 km of Phase-III corridors would have been commissioned and another 72 km are in the final stages of completion,” DMRC said.

The nine stations on the Botanical Garden-Kalkaji Mandir section are — Botanical Garden, Kalindi Kunj, Jasola Vihar, Shaheen Bagh, Jamia Millia Islamia, Okhla Vihar, Sukhdev Vihar, Okhla NSIC and Kalkaji Mandir. While the Kalkaji Mandir station is underground, all the other stations are elevated. “After the Magenta Line gets fully operationalised, we will be running 24 trains, to begin with, which we will gradually increase to 26, apart from operating reserve,” the DMRC official said. ”

The frequency will be 5 minutes and 15 seconds through the whole section and if passenger traffic demands, we may introduce shorter intermediate loops with higher frequency after studying the traffic pattern,” he said.