By Md. Ali, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: The residents of Jamia Nagar, a Muslim dominated locality in South Delhi, and students of Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), situated in the locality, now have a reason to be happy with the Metro Rail. The Delhi Metro, which is giving final shape to its Phase III, has included more residential, business and academic centers of the capital than originally planned. In the new plan, Metro will touch the central university Jamia Millia also.
It’s important to mention here that there was a widespread sense of dissatisfaction and anger among the residents of Jamia Nagar against the political leadership and the administration, because Delhi Metro had not included the area in its second phase and had connected areas only till Kalkaji Mandir, a locality around 3 kilometers away from Jamia Nagar.
In fact the Muslim dominated locality was not included in the original plans of this phase also because of which the residents felt that they are being discriminated against because theirs is a Muslim locality.
Because of the exclusion of the locality which accommodates some of the elites of the community including Salman Khursheed, the Union minister for Minority Affairs, from the originals plans of third phase, there was immense political pressure on the Congress government of Delhi to ensure that the area gets included in the third phase of Delhi Metro. According to E. Shreedharan, the chief of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), DMRC had prepared a Detailed Project Report (DPR) earlier for 70 km. Now, the Delhi government wants some alterations. So Phase III is covering almost 104 km, 34 km extra.
The Phase III, which is expected to be finished by 2016, has made Kalkaji Mandir, an inter-changing station from where the proposed Metro line will pass through Jamia Millia Islamia and Outer Ring road. The coverage of Jamia will be the biggest addition in this phase.
While residents of Jamia Nagar and the students of JMI have expressed happiness at this news, the local MLA, Asif Mohammad Khan has expressed skepticism on whether it will ever take place.
“It’s a good news which will bring both cheer and good hope among the residents of Jamia Nagar towards Shiela Dixit government because we had almost lost hope that this locality will ever be connected to Delhi Metro,” said Mohammad Nurullah, vice- president of Batla House Resident Welfare Association.
Saira Mujtaba, a student of Mass Communication Research Center, JMI, said that Metro connectivity will not only provide convenient transport to the students of JMI but will also add one more attractive aspect to the profile of the historical university.
The local MLA, Mr. Khan criticized the Congress government of Delhi for being “anti-Muslim.” Apparently taking credit for the metro connectivity and expressing skepticism at the same time, he said, “I am not sure if at all they will connect this area with the Delhi Metro in spite of several campaigns which I had started for the purpose.”
On the other hand, for this development, Shoaib Danish, the local councilor of Jamia Nagar who owes political allegiance to the Congress party, gave credit to the Sheila Dixit government and Sandeep Dixit, the Member of Parliament from South Delhi.
After the Planning Commission’s approval, the Phase-III project will be reviewed by an empowered committee of officials before going for union cabinet approval. The work for Phase III will start in April this year. Phase III will have two additional big lines – Lines 7 and 8 – while others are only extension of existing lines. The Kalindi Kunj line will be extended till Noida (Botanical Garden). The Noida extension will be taken care of by the Noida authority.
The proposed Phase III will cost Rs.27,500 crore for the Delhi extensions. With this, the DMRC will cover 70 percent of the capital city’s population and include neighbouring areas like Faridabad and Noida.
Sreedharan said that the Metro carries about 1.5 million passengers and the average revenue is about Rs.2.75 crores a day. By the time Phase III is over it is targeting a total ridership of at least three million people, the total revenue reaching over Rs.5 crore a day.