The main venue of the Commonwealth Games– Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium — will get connected by the Metro on Sunday, just hours before the mega sporting event begins.

The 16-km Central Secretariat-Sarita Vihar corridor will be opened to the public at 8 AM on Sunday with the DMRC getting the mandatory certificate for launching of commercial services from Commissioner of Metro Rail Safety R K Kardam.

There will be no formal function as the Games begin on Sunday evening. Passenger services will start simultaneously from Central Secretariat and Sarita Vihar at 8 AM on Sunday, DMRC spokesman said.

The DMRC plans to run 29 Standard Gauge Metro trains for on the corridor during peak hours.

This is the second Standard Gauge line to come up in the country after the Delhi Metro’s Inderlok-Mundka corridor.

Pilot trains to check the preparedness will be run on this line with officers from signaling, electrical, track and rolling stock as per the standard safety precautions followed by DMRC, the spokesman said.

The line is part of the Central Secretariat-Badarpur corridor, but the DMRC decided to inaugurate the line till Sarita Vihar due to non-completion of work on the remaining corridor which was originally scheduled to open by September end.

Work on the line was delayed after an under construction pillar collapsed in Zamrudpur in south Delhi last July killing seven people.

The opening of the line will facilitate people who are planning to attend the inauguration ceremony of the Commonwealth Games.

People can directly go to the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium from the station. A train will arrive every 2 minutes and 40 seconds to cater to the passenger rush due to the Games, the spokesman said.

He said train movement on this line will be personally monitored by senior Metro officers from the Operations Control Room throughout the inaugural function on Sunday.

The last trains will be available at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium Metro Station at 11:20 PM for passengers going towards Central Secretariat while the last train from Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium Metro Station towards Sarita Vihar will depart at 11:10 PM.

The line is expected to be further extended upto Badarpur from Sarita Vihar in about 10 days time.

In all, the CTST- Sarita Vihar corridor will connect two venues of the XIXth CWG 2010 the National Stadium near Central Secretariat Metro Station and the JLN stadium near the JLN Stadium Metro Station.

With its inauguration, the total operational Metro network expands to 153 kilometers with 130 Metro Stations and the travel time from Central Secretariat to Sarita Vihar will be approximately 26 minutes.

The line was completed in about 41 months as it was approved only in April 2007 and is expected to attract 3.60 lakh people to the transport system by 2011.

With the inauguration of the line, Central Secretariat will become one of the biggest interchange Metro stations with both Standard and Broad gauge lines merging here.