Delhi Metro Red Line: In the memory of Kargil martyrs, two stations on the new Dilshad Garden-Ghaziabad New Bus Adda corridor will be renamed! In the latest development, the Uttar Pradesh government has given its nod to change the names of two metro stations on the new Dilshad Garden to Ghaziabad New Bus Adda corridor which is awaiting its inauguration for starting passengers services. Upon the final approval, the New Bus Adda station will be called as ‘Shaheed Sthal’ and the Rajendra Nagar metro station will be named as ‘Major Mohit Sharma’ (Rajendra Nagar) station. It is possible that these names of the stations will be changed before the inauguration of this new corridor, according to a recent PTI report.
Ritu Maheshwari, District Magistrate, Ghaziabad was quoted in the report saying that a request was sent to the state government by the district administration and the Ghaziabad Development Authority for changing the names of two metro stations. This was on behalf of the memorandums from public representatives and the residents of Ghaziabad. The ‘Shaheed Sthal’ metro station has been renamed in such a way as it will be in the memory of the martyrs. On the other hand, the ‘Major Mohit Sharma’ metro station has been named after the Kargil martyr. In addition to this, Nitin Ramesh Gokaran, Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh has sent a demi official letter to the Secretary of Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India and the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Limited (DMRC) to change the names.
The new Dilshad Garden-Ghaziabad New Bus Adda metro rail corridor and the Hindon civilian airport will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will also be present during the ceremony. According to Maheshwari, both these projects will be inaugurated on March 8 tentatively, but the date is subject to confirmation by the Prime Minister’s Office.
Meanwhile, the new Delhi Metro corridor connecting Dilshad Garden station in Delhi to New Bus Adda station in Ghaziabad has been ready for operations. It has been inspected by the Commissioner of Metro Rail Safety (CMRS) as well. The new metro corridor is 9.63 km long, entirely elevated and has a total of eight metro stations. On this corridor, all the eight metro stations have four levels. These levels are namely, the ground, concourse, platform and the roof. The Hindon River station is the only station to have a total of five levels, including a ground level for parking area.