Delhi Metro’s phase III, which was scheduled to be thrown open to the public last year, is not likely to be operational anytime before the end of this year and Metro officials blame Land Acquisition Act 2013 for the repeated delays.
Metro phase III includes the Pink Line and starts from Mukundpur and ends at Shiv Vihar connecting Lajpat Nagar, Trilokpuri, Kalindi Kunj, among other places.
According to senior officials, the Delhi Metro has been facing multiple land issues in almost all the corridors of its phase III projects, and this has turned out to be a major hurdle in the time-bound operation of these corridors.
“The norms for acquiring land have become stricter after change in the land acquisition laws following passage of the Bill concerned in Parliament in 2013 and that is causing a lot of delay in the projects. Earlier, it was easier to get land for infrastructural development for the larger public good; now, however, there are many aspects which we need to look into before we can acquire land and start construction,” a senior Metro official said. The Pink Line with 38 Metro stations will be running through the Ring Road and is one of the most important corridors of the Delhi Metro; yet even this corridor of phase III has been facing hurdles in acquiring lands at several places. The difficulty in acquiring land at Trilokpuri and Hasanpur in East Delhi has caused much delay to the project. However, land issues at Punjabi Bagh and Naraina on the same line have recently been sorted out and construction on these two stretches has already begun. “Trilokpuri and Hasanpur are crucial places and we haven’t been able to get through the land in these places yet. There are houses and families, especially in Hasanpur, which do not want to relocate and this is causing a problem,” a Delhi Metro spokesperson said. The Metro also faced problems at NH-24 during construction. According to the Metro official cited above, four pillars had to be brought down after the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) decided to expand its roads and Metro constructions had to be relocated. “These are the problems we have been facing in phase III and therefore the projects are being delayed, which was not the case in the earlier phases. However, we are working towards fast-tracking the projects. We will start operations on stretches as and when we will complete work,” the spokesperson said. “We are conducting trial runs at some stretches. The Heritage line (that connects through the walled city) will be opening very soon,” he said.