New Delhi: Delhi Metro first line of Phase II - Shahdara to Dilshad Garden - was flagged off on Tuesday evening. The new line will be opened to the public from Wednesday morning and commuters will not have to pay any extra fare for the the additional 3.1 km journey from the existing station at Shahdara to Dilshad Garden.

Inaugurated a good seven months ahead of schedule, the 3.1 km elevated line has three stations - at Mansarovar Park, Jhilmil and Dilshad Garden, increasing the total metro network in the city to 68.2 kms.

Tuesday also marks the start of Phase II of operations wherein another 10 Metro lines will be opened for Delhiites in the next year and a half. Speaking on the occasion, E Sreedharan, DMRC's managing director said: "The Vishwavidyalaya-Jehangirpuri line, which is the next on the cards, has a June 2009 deadline. We are planning to start it six months earlier too. Since we have 10 lines to complete before the Commonwealth Games 2010, we want to finish as much work as possible before time so that the last part can be used to focus on completing more difficult structures.''

He added the corporation is studying the possibility of extending this line into Ghaziabad. The extension will be well connected with feeder buses too, with the first service starting from Day 1 itself. The feeder route will connect the Dilshad Garden metro station to Dayanand Hospital, GTB Hospital, GTB corner pocket P, Deer Park, Pummy Sweets, J & K pocket and Shahdara border.

Jaipal Reddy, Union urban development minister spoke at the occasion, highlighting the lack of parking space at metro stations. He asked DMRC to look into construction of multi-level parking lots to enable more and more people to park their cars and use the Metro for their commute. Reddy added that the physical integration of Metro with feeder modes like buses, cycle rickshaws and autos is essential.

Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit called the new metro line the first step towards the makeover of this part of town. "I am sure that this metro line will be used the maximum and in the times to come, 80 to 90 per cent of Delhiites will use public transport.'' Also present for the function were transport minister Haroon Yusuf, mayor Arti Mehra, MP Sandeep Dikshit, MLAs Narendra Nath and Vir Singh Jhingan.

Delhi Metro's Shahdara - Dilshad Garden line

• Length - 3.1 kms
• No of stations - 3 Station
  Names - Mansarovar Park, Jhilmil Colony, Dilshad Garden
• Parking available at - Dilshad Garden, Jhilmil Colony
• No of escalators - 12
• No of lifts - 9
• No of fare collection gates - 16

Delhi Metro Project - Deadlines, Completion Dates of Proposed Lines
Indraprastha – New Ashok Nagar	Jun 2009
New Ashok Nagar – NOIDA City Centre	Jun 2009
Vishwavidyalaya – Jahangirpuri	Jun 2009
Yamuna Bank – Anand Vihar ISBT	Dec 2009
Dwarka Sec 9 – Dwarka Sec 21	Dec 2009
Inderlok-Kirti Nagar – Mundka	Mar 2010
Qutub Minar – (Sushant Lok) Gurgaon	Jan 2010
Central Secretariat – Qutub Minar	Jun 2010
Airport Express Link up to Dwarka Sec 21	Aug 2010
Central Secretariat - Badarpur	Sep 2010
Anand Vihar ISBT - Vaishali (Ghaziabad)	Sep 2010

Source: The Times of India