DMRC Modifies Alignment of Phase 4’s Saket – Lajpat Nagar Line

So back in October 2016, I wrote about the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) revealing the alignment of Delhi’s upcoming 7.96 km Saket – Lajpat Nagar line through a dedicated webpage on their site for demarcating the influence zones of all existing, under construction and proposed lines. The southern alignment of that new line has now been modified considerably and for the most part will run on Lal Bahadur Shastri Marg where the infamous BRT line was built, operated and later scrapped.

This mostly-elevated line is envisioned as a spur/branch of the upcoming 20.20 km Tughlakabad – Aerocity line, and in its previous avatar was supposed to consist of 6 stations at Saket G-Block, Sheikh Sarai, Chirag Delhi, GK-1, Andrews Ganj and Lajpat Nagar.

In the new plan and alignment which appears to have been published in mid-June, the line will have 9 stations at Saket G-Block, Saket J-Block, Select City Walk, Amity International School, Pushp Vihar Sector-7, Chirag Delhi (interchange with Magenta Line), Sadiq Nagar/Greater Kailash, Andrews Ganj and Lajpat Nagar (interchange with Violet & Pink lines).

I’ve reproduced the DMRC’s new map here displaying the location of all the proposed stations. An unadulterated version of it can be viewed here on their website.

New alignment of Saket – Lajpat Nagar line – view Delhi Metro Phase 3 map & info

The old alignment, for comparison, can be viewed here.

Couple of pointers –

• 5 stations within 2.8 kms of each other in the Saket – Pushp Vihar neighborhood seems like an overkill which will increase commute time.  I’d like to see the station at Saket’s J-Block getting dropped and the stations at Amity International School & Pushp Vihar getting combined into one.

• The Saket G-Block Station has been moved a little to the east. Instead of coming up south of Saket’s G-Block where ‘City Forest’ is marked above, it’s now proposed to come up at the Army Campgrounds in Pushp Vihar’s Sector-2. If this new location is frozen, then its name is likely to be changed.

• The line’s orientation has also changed, so anyone trying to get from GK to the airport’s Aerocity Station will now have to switch trains at Saket G-Block as the trains will enter the station from the west-end instead of the east-end. That’s not quite ideal, as I believe a majority of users would rather head west towards Mehrauli rather than east towards Badarpur. Traffic projections perhaps suggest the opposite.

Old train operation plan:
Aerocity ⇄ Saket ⇄ Tughlakabad
Aerocity ⇄ Saket ⇄ Lajpat Nagar

New train operation plan:
Aerocity ⇄ Saket ⇄ Tughlakabad
Lajpat Nagar ⇄ Saket ⇄ Tughlakabad

• Depending on the ongoing geotechnical surveys’ results, the line could possibly be further realigned or fine-tuned.

• There was recently some news of the central government approving this line’s extension to IGNOU (southward) and Jaitpur (eastward). That’s not true at all and highly misleading. My thoughts can be seen here.

Phase 4’s Current Status

Apart from Haryana government’s approval for the Red Line’s 4.86 km extension to Kundli in early June, things haven’t significantly changed in the pre-construction stage since my previous update which included an updated official map & detailed table of the project.

For more updates, check out the Delhi section of The Metro Rail Guy!

– TMRG

Hat Tip to Vibhav Sharma