While the Centre and the State are at loggerheads, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) started to process to begin the work for Phase IV. However the vexatious issue of bearing operation losses remains the bone of contention between the Centre and the Delhi Government. Despite this, Delhi Metro has begun the process of Phase- IV to start the construction work projects by inviting tenders.
The tender has been floated for the construction of first 12.3 km long section consisting of 10 elevated stations of the Janakpuri West to Ramakrishna (RK) Ashram corridor.
The total length of this corridor is about 29 km and this corridor will be an extension of Magenta Line.
The 12.3 km section of this corridor will connect from Janakpuri West to North Pitampura. This corridor will have ten elevated stations at Keshopur, Paschim Vihar, Peeragarhi, Mangolpuri, West Enclave, Pushpanjali, Deepali Chowk, Madhuban Chowk, Prashant Vihar and North Pitampura.
As per sources, the DMRC has decided to divide the Phase-IV project in multiple packages and contracts to begin the work of 64 km priority corridors.
The Central Government in the month February approved the three priority corridors of the Phase IV—21 km Aerocity to Tughlakabad, 29 km Janakpuri West to RK Ashram and 12.55 km Maujpur to Mukundpur.
The tender for the first package i.e, Keshopur to North Pitampura was invited on 2nd July and tender will be opened after one month and the finalisation of the contract and tender process will take at least 3-4 months.
“The first part of this section is one of high value, expensive and important project as the stretch is one of the longest will connect the most congested areas.
There will be 10 stations on this section all elevated and this package also include construct, viaduct, elevated ramp, side line and connectivity of the station to road such as Foot over Bridge (FOB) and Subways,” said a source adding on the corporation has also begin the preliminary work of this section to save the time.
“The DMRC started its work to save the time when the actual construction process will start, once the Government will approve. The Corporation has also deployed engineers, architects and staffs that has begin the preliminary work such as pile loading, utility, geo technical surveys, drawing, designs and layout plan,” sources.
There were total six priority corridors under the Phase IV project, out of which three corridors were approved the centre before the Lok Sabha Elections and the project was expected to start after the elections but before that the Delhi Government wrote a letter to centre saying that it cannot bear the operational losses and wanted to share the operational losses equally with 50-50 percent with the centre alike the Phase III.
In reply, the Centre also refused to accept the Government request and said it will not accept any liability for the loan that will be given by the Japan International Corporation Agency (JICA).
The Janakpuri West to RK Ashram corridor is about 29 km and consists total 25 stations, of which 21 km (17 stations) will be elevated and 8km (eight stations) will be underground. Besides Keshopur to north Pitampura, the remaining stations of this section are RK Ashram, Sadar Bazar, Pulbangash, Ghanta Ghar/Sabzi Mandi, Rajpura, Derawal Nagar,Ashok Vihar, Azadpur, Mukundpur, Bhalaswa, Mukarba Chowk, Badli Mor.
