After a hiatus of six months, the
Airport Express Metro is back on track from Tuesday. It was shown the green flag by the commissioner of metro rail safety (CMRS) in a mandatory safety inspection held three days ago.
Though the Airport Metro's return is
good news for Reliance Infrastructure, the dampener has been the restriction on the speed limit, which has been downed from the earlier 105 km per hour (kmph) to 50 kmph.
This will put the Airport Metro's speed on a par with that of normal Metro trains, nullifying the very purpose of the Express train.
To attract some of their passengers back, Reliance Infra has announced a
discounted fare of Rs 30 per trip. The Airport Express line would run from 5.30 am to 11.30 pm daily at a frequency of 15 minutes.
The Delhi Airport Metro
line started its commercial operation in February 2011, but services had to be suspended on July 8, 2012, because of defects in civil structures.
After the speed restriction on the Airport Metro, the journey from Connaught Place to Terminal 3 of IGI Airport will take at least 30 to 35 minutes, which may effectively nullify the very purpose of a high-speed corridor.
It initially covered the distance in around 20 minutes.
After a two-day inspection on Tuesday and Wednesday last week, CMRS R. K. Kardam gave the much-awaited nod on Monday in a letter sent to the Delhi Metro and Reliance Infrastructure for its resumption on the 23-km high-speed line.
In association with Mail Today 
Special 
