Metro may connect Sushant Lok with IGI airport

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) in its revised Delhi Metro Master Plan 2021 has proposed a metro link to connect the Sushant Lok Metro Station in Gurgaon with the IGI airport and Central Delhi as part of its expansion plans in Phase III. Meandering through Palam Vihar in Gurgaon and Sector 21 (Dwarka), the proposed metro link runs along the Gurgaon-Sarai Rohilla railway track.

The proposed airport-Sushant Lok metro link is in addition to the 14-km-long Qutub-Sushant Lok extension to Gurgaon that runs along MG Road, expected to be completed by January 2010.

Chief public relation officer of DMRC Anuj Dayal told Hindustan Times that the proposed alignment between Sushant Lok and the airport had been suggested in view of the integration of the Metro Rail network with the Indian Railways. He said the suburban rail would help people to switch over to the Metro and vice versa.

This link is likely to be about 23-km-long; 19 km inside Gurgaon and four km in Delhi. The proposed alignment includes an extension connecting Sushant Lok Metro station with T-junction near Sector 47/48 at Sohna Road. From here, the line will got to Rajiv Chowk at Gurgaon Expressway, and meander through Kiti Nagar (near Sector 15), Friends Colony, Subhash Nagar, Government college, Ashok Vihar and Bhigarh. From Bhigarh. it will get along the Gurgaon-Sarai Rohilla railway track, pass through Palam Vihar to connect Dwarka Sector 21 metro station and then the airport metro station.

"Using this route, the people of Gurgaon would be able to directly approach West Delhi and North Delhi as well. People seeking to go to this side of Delhi would have the option of boarding Metro from Rajiv Chowk at Gurgaon Expressway (NH-8) through this line. The population density and availability of land along the proposed corridor near Rajiv Chowk is very high," Dayal said.

The DMRC chief public relation officer said: "The airport-Sushant Lok link is part of the 414 km expansion plan (spread over in four phases) of DMRC and will be taken up in Phase III starting in 2010. However, this alignment proposed in Master Plan 2021 is subject to government approval."

Besides the residents of old Gurgaon, new townships coming up on Sohna Road, townships along NH-8 and Manesar will benefit.