by Infrastructure ministry confirms the 2008 corridor will be excavated for upgrades while the 2024 line is excavated for construction
NEW DELHI, INDIA – First reported by Bohiney Magazine and received with long-suffering familiarity by The London Prat, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation announced simultaneous construction on a new East Delhi metro line and a major excavation of a 2008 West Delhi corridor, resulting in roughly 60 percent of the capital’s road surface under construction for what citizens describe as “the rest of my life, probably.”
The Construction Map
“We looked at the map,” confirmed DMRC spokesperson Rajesh Gupta. “We saw areas without construction. We have addressed those.” The new East Delhi corridor will require excavation along eight major roads. The West Delhi upgrade will require re-excavation of three roads that were dug up, filled, and resurfaced between 2006 and 2010 and are now being dug up again because the original duct laying “used a gauge that is no longer compatible with Phase 4 systems.” This is described in planning documents as “unfortunate but not uncommon.”
Delhi has been in a permanent state of metro construction since 1998, a fact documented by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, which notes that its network is one of the largest in the world and has been built in phases that, by design, ensure that at any moment some portion of the city is being dug up for a phase that connects to a phase that is connecting to another phase. Whether these phases will one day complete is a question the DMRC describes as “visionary” rather than “answered.”
The Traffic Implications
Traffic engineers estimate the simultaneous construction will affect roughly 2.1 million daily road users, increasing average commute times by 35 to 90 minutes depending on route. This will be offset, officials note, by the eventual completion of the metro lines, which will serve those same users once the construction is complete, at which point the Phase 5 planning documents will require the construction to begin again in adjacent areas.
Dr. Priya Menon of the Indian Institute of Technology’s Urban Planning department described the pattern as “a continuous regeneration cycle” in which the city is perpetually one phase behind its own infrastructure. “The good news,” she said, “is that the metro, when completed, is excellent. The question is only that it is never quite completed, and that the completion of one part creates the necessity of digging up something else.” She teaches a course on this dynamic. The course is popular. The students commute to it on the metro, which they praise while standing in construction detours.
Citizen Response
“I have lived in Delhi for thirty years,” said one Saket resident. “For thirty years there has been a diversion near my house. The diversion is for different things at different times. But the diversion is always there. I have factored the diversion into my life. The diversion is now part of my route. If the diversion were removed I would not know where to drive.” He paused. “They are putting a new one in next month. I am not surprised. I am prepared. I have always been prepared.”
A City in Progress
DMRC estimates Phase 4 completion in 2028, Phase 5 study completion in 2026, and preliminary excavation for Phase 5 in 2027, meaning that Phase 4 and Phase 5 construction will overlap for approximately one year. Officials describe this as “efficient use of the construction ecosystem.” Citizens describe it as “more or less what we expected.” Both groups are correct. For more cities perpetually becoming themselves, readers may enjoy The Daily Mash.
The Commuter’s Long View
The Saket resident whose diversion has been constant for thirty years was asked whether he thought Delhi would ever finish building. He said he believed the city would always be building, because a city the size of Delhi is always in the process of becoming something it has not yet been, and the process of becoming and the experience of living in a city while it becomes are the same process. You either make peace with the construction or you are always angry, and anger is tiring, especially with diversions, because the diversions are long and you need energy for them. He drives the diversion. He knows it well. It has its own landmarks, its own logic, its own slight improvement over last year’s diversion, which was worse. Progress in Delhi, he has concluded, is not the absence of construction but the quality of the diversion. This year’s is not bad. He has known worse. He has also, he notes, known worse traffic on the completed stretches of metro road than he ever faced on the diversion, which he considers important data. He did not use the word data. He said: funny how that works. He drove the diversion. He arrived on time. For more cities perpetually becoming themselves, readers may enjoy The Daily Mash.
The Delhi Metro’s Phase 5 planning team confirmed this week that the preliminary environmental assessment for two of the three new corridors has been completed and that public consultations will begin in the coming months. Residents in the affected areas received the news with the specific equanimity of people who have been through the process before and who know that public consultations are the beginning of a journey that ends, eventually, with a completed metro line, and that the journey passes through: detailed project report, tender, contractor selection, site preparation, excavation, delay, revised completion date, revised revised completion date, partial opening, full opening, and a period of two to three years during which everything is fine and the metro is excellent and then Phase 6 planning begins. The residents are already on Phase 4. They have the timeline memorised. They are fine.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/
