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The Delhi Metro began operations in December 2002 with an 8.2-kilometre corridor connecting six Red Line stations. By 2022, it will have expanded to a network of over 390 km, capping a dramatic 20 years of development. Currently, the national capital and nearby cities’ various routes are run by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation. The first length of the DMRC, an 8.2-kilometer route with only six stations running from Shahdara to Tis Hazari, was officially opened by prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on December 24, 2002, one day before Delhi Metro began operating for pay passengers.
To mark the two decades of operations, Delhi Metro is slated to run a special train on Saturday that Vajpayee flagged off on December 24, 2002. “It is an exciting milestone for the DMRC, and the special run of the six-coach train will take place today from Kashmere Gate station to Welcome station on the Red Line,” a senior official said.
A special exhibition commemorating 20 years of operations will also be opened on Saturday at Welcome station. A day after the inauguration of the first-ever corridor in 2002, the rush was so “massive” that authorities had to issue “paper tickets” to handle the flow of passengers, officials had told PTI earlier.
Congratulations to Delhi Metro #OfficialDMRC, its staff members and their families on 20th anniversary of its operation. Every operational achievement was made possible with great individual efforts. The last two decades have witnessed steady progress in our cooperation. pic.twitter.com/gC1Y8zUxmD
— Hiroshi Suzuki, Ambassador of Japan (@HiroSuzukiAmbJP) December 24, 2022
The introduction of the state-of-the-art rapid transit system was such a novel mode of transport in the city then that many people believed it was only there temporarily, and thus the DMRC had to issue advertisements in newspapers to tell people that it was “here to stay?”, they had said. DMRC trains, on average, run 400-600 km and 16-18 hours a day, officials said.
The DMRC network’s current span is nearly 392 km with 286 stations (including the Noida-Greater Noida Metro Corridor and Rapid Metro, Gurgaon). Rare images of the very first piling work done in the national capital for building the Delhi Metro and old newspaper clippings are among the archival documents which have been put up on display as part of a permanent exhibition at Kashmere Gate station of the network last December by the DMRC.
The exhibition — ‘Tracing Delhi Metro’s Journey’ — has been launched to mark the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation entering into the 20th year of its operations, the officials said. The Red Line itself has now extended on both sides to Rithala in Delhi and New Bus Stand (Shaheed Sthal) in Ghaziabad.
With PTI inputs
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