NEW DELHI, 20 December 2004 — Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inaugurated the first underground section of the Delhi Metro yesterday between Delhi University and Kashmiri Gate. The first underground section of the metro is expected to cut pollution and improve life for 14 million people crowded into India’s traffic-choked capital.
Manmohan inaugurated 4.12 kilometers of track under the congested north of the city, describing the occasion as a “red letter day” for New Delhi.
“I am convinced that India’s cities cannot continue to develop in the present way.... we will have to invest in public infrastructure,” the Press Trust of India news agency quoted him as saying. Manmohan also traveled on the underground section he inaugurated.
The first stretch of New Delhi’s Metro opened in December 2002 and the second in October 2003, both on the surface in the northwest.
Modeled on the profitable Hong Kong network, the three sections cover about 38 kilometers.
New Delhi plans to have 62 kilometers of metro running by December 2005 with a capacity of two million passengers a day, theoretically doing away with the need for 2,600 buses or 33 lanes worth of cars.
The city has long lacked an efficient public transport system and has more vehicular traffic than India’s three other leading cities — Bombay, Calcutta and Madras — put together. The cost of constructing the metro is forecast at 100 billion rupees ($2 billion), half of it lent by Japan.
Among those present at the ceremony at Delhi University station were union ministers Ghulam Nabi Azad, Jagdish Tytler and Kapil Sibal, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, Delhi Transport Minister Haroon Yusuf, Lt. Governor B.L. Joshi and Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) Managing Director E. Sreedharan. Delhi Chief Minster Dikshit said the metro would reduce congestion on roads and the pollution level.
Completed seven months ahead of schedule, the Kashmiri Gate-Delhi University section was slated for completion in June 2005.
On the occasion, the prime minister also released a book featuring photographs of the construction of the underground section.
