New Delhi, Jan 10 (IANS) About 12 percent of work on Phase-III of Delhi Metro is over. Once complete by March 2016, this project will add another 140 km of Metro network in the capital, an official said Thursday.

A small section of the first corridor of Phase-III is likely to open by September 2015 and in a phased manner the rest of the corridor will open by March 2016, a Delhi Metro official said Thursday.
“About 12 percent of Delhi Metro Phase-III construction work is over. Though there was initial slow down in the work, we hope to complete it by March 2016. The first small section from Vinod Nagar to Yamuna Vihar of the Line 7 Mukundpur-Gokulpuri section will be opened for commuters by September 2015 and from then every month we are planning to open up a section of the corridor,” Jitendra Tyagi, director (Works) of Delhi Metro told reporters.
The Mukundpur corridor will be the longest (56 km) with 35 stations.
Admitting that there were hurdles in the construction of the Phase-III network, Tyagi said: “We had some delays and hurdles in the form of permission from the National Monuments Authority (NMA) in the Central Secretariat-Kashmere Gate corridor and acquisition of land for depot in Vinod Nagar, which falls under the category of ‘forest’.”
He also said that Phase-III differs in construction from Phase-II, and it has about nine intersections of corridors.
“We have about nine to 10 interchange stations, so there is a slight difference in the construction method from the Phase-II corridors,” Tyagi said.
Talking about the Phase-III corridors, N.P. Srivastava, chief project manager, Delhi Metro, said: “In Line 7 we have 40 percent elevated corridor and 60 percent underground. We have 17 casting yards for Phase-III alone. In these casting yards, the individual segments of the metro corridors are constructed. Quality check of cement, steel and sand is performed.”
Delhi Metro officials also said that initiatives are undertaken to sensitise workers at the site about safety.
“We take enough safety measures for the labourers. As part of our safety initiative, street plays and booklets explaining the dos and don’ts at the construction sites are being taken up,” Tyagi said.
About 40,000 construction workers are employed for Phase-III. Delhi Metro is organising 300 street plays at all construction sites of Delhi Metro till 2016. Three specialised agencies have been hired to perform these plays.
With the completion of Phase-III in 2016, DMRC would cover almost 70 percent of Delhi.
Delhi Metro now makes over 2,700 trips a day, covering about 70,000 km and carrying around 1.8 million passengers on weekdays.

New Delhi, May 2 (IANS) Delhi Metro’s Phase III, which will connect another 103 km of the capital, will be finished by 2016, Metro chief Mangu Singh said Wednesday.

And to speed up work, Delhi Metro is providing special training for its middle-level staff and deploying more Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs).

“We realize that Phase-III shall be a very huge task to manage,” he told the media.
“On technology our officials have enough experience. But we realized that the middle level management is the backbone, so we trained 76 middle level officers in three batches at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Ahmedabad.”
He said he was confident that all the corridors would be completed on time by 2016.
“The civil tenders on two corridors — Central Secretariat to Kashmere Gate and Jahangirpuri to Badli — have been awarded and contractors have begun work,” he said.
The design of the stations and their alignment have been finalised.
About 40 percent of Phase-III will have underground corridors. So DMRC is going for TBM, which helps in tunnelling without causing any damage to the neighbouring buildings.
In Phase III, Delhi Metro aims to link Mukundpur to Yamuna Vihar, Janakpuri West to Kalindi Kunj, Central Secretariat to Kashmere Gate and Jahangirpuri to Badli.
The Mukundpur corridor will be the longest (56 km) with 35 stations. The Janakpuri West-Munirka-Kalindi Kunj corridor will be 34 km long with 22 stations.
Delhi Metro now makes over 2,400 trips a day, covering about 70,000 km and carrying around 1.8 million passengers on working days.