Airport Express Line to be extended up to Gurgaon: E Sreedharan

High-speed Airport Express Line will be extended up to Gurgaon providing a faster link to the people of the capital to reach the satellite city, Delhi Metro chief E Sreedharan said today.
   
The 14-km link connecting the Indira Gandhi International Airport with Gurgaon will be part of the Phase-III and is likely to be implemented through the Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) model.
   
It will provide a faster link for the capital's denizens to reach Gurgaon in just 35 minutes. Though a final decision has not been taken on who will execute the project, Sreedharan gave hints that the Reliance Infra-led consortium, which is operating the existing Airport Line, could be awarded the contract.
   
"The terms and conditions will be the same as the Airport Line. If they agree to it, then it will be fine. Otherwise, we have think of someone else," he said.
   
Sreedharan said the Delhi Metro's Phase-III will be extended to another 140 km in the National Capital Region connecting cities like Faridabad and some areas in Noida and Ghaziabad.
   
Besides the corridors in Delhi, the Badarpur-Faridabad link, connecting either Vaishali or Dilshad Garden with Ghaziabad and the Gurgaon-IGI Airport link will be taken up under the Phase-III.
   
The Faridabad project has been cleared by the Urban Development Ministry and the Uttar Pradesh Government is keen on extending the Metro to Ghaziabad. But, a decision on whether to extend from Dilshad Garden or Vaishali has to be taken, he said.
   
He said the Phase-III is currently with the Empowered Group of Ministers headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and the nod is likely to come in the next two months.
   
However, the Delhi Metro has got approval for the small stretch connecting Central Secretariat with Mandi House and work on the line will start in the next 60 days, he said.
   
"This line is important to decongest the Rajiv Chowk station. So, we have already awarded the contract and work will start soon," he said.
   
The Metro chief said the Phase-III corridors can see trains running at an interval of 2 minutes as against the current 2.5 minutes.
   
He said the Phase-III corridors will also see 9-coach Metro trains, though initially they will have six-coach ones.