From this weekend, commuters can hope to reach Gurgaon from the city’s shopping hub of Connaught Place in less than an hour as the Central Secretariat-Qutub Minar corridor is likely to be opened by that time.

The inauguration of the 12.53 km line will take place after the Commissioner of Metro Rail Safety R K Kardam inspects the entire corridor on Monday and Tuesday and give his mandatory safety clearance.

“The inspection date has been fixed for August 30 and 31,” Kardam said.

Once the Central Secretariat-Qutub Minar corridor is opened and integrated with the existing 14.47 km Qutub Minar-HUDA City Centre line, it would drastically reduce travel time between Delhi and its satellite city of Gurgaon.

It will take less than an hour for commuters to reach the Millennium City of Gurgaon from the capital’s shopping hub of Connaught Place once the line becomes operational, as compared to at least 90 minutes by road.

The opening of the line will also allow Delhiites to enjoy a comfort ride from north Delhi to south Delhi and vice-versa as the Central Secretariat-HUDA City Centre (Gurgaon) line will be integrated to the existing Central Secretariat-Jehangirpuri corridor.

The entire 42 km from Jehangirpuri to Gurgaon will be covered in less than 90 minutes.

Sources said the line will be opened to the public in two-three days after the Delhi Metro gets the green signal from the CMRS.

The line was scheduled to open by the end of August. This will be the second line where the DMRC will miss its originally-set deadline. Earlier, the Metro had missed the deadline on the Yamuna Bank-Noida line.

DMRC plans to run 60 trains on the entire stretch at a frequency of 3 minutes.

The Central Secretariat-HUDA City Centre line, built at a total cost of Rs 3,720 crore, is expected to add over 3.4 lakh people to the Metro system by 2011.

After the Gurgaon line, DMRC will have only two lines to complete before the Commonwealth Games in October. They are Central Secretariat-Badarpur and New Delhi-Airport Express Lines.

Vehicle parking for commuters on the Central Secretariat-Gurgaon line will be provided at the HUDA City Centre, IIFCO Chowk, Sikanderpur, Guru Dronacharya station, MG Road, Chattarpur, Sultanpur, Arjangarh, Ghittorni, and Green Park Metro stations.

Trial runs on the corridor are being successfully conducted and the civil structure are being checked to ensure there is no physical blockage during the movement of the train on the track.

The DMRC had also made the Chhattarpur Metro station, fully made in steel, last week to the public. It has the biggest parking space among all Metro stations.