Cabinet clears Delhi Metro’s Rithala-Kundli corridor

The announcement will bolster the Capital’s already expansive Metro grid with a significant outreach towards the city’s northwestern border

The Union cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Friday approved the sixth corridor under Phase 4 of the Delhi Metro — a 26.46-km-long Rithala-Narela-Kundli route extending the Red Line — which will comprise 21 stations. Nineteen of these stations will be in Delhi, while two will be in Haryana.

Nineteen of these stations will be in Delhi, while two will be in Haryana. (HT Archive)

The announcement, which will bolster the Capital’s already expansive Metro grid with a significant outreach towards the city’s northwestern border, comes ahead of next year’s assembly elections.

In a media briefing after the cabinet meeting, Union information and broadcasting minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the project under Delhi Metro Phase 4 will cost approximately ₹6,231 crore.

The corridor is scheduled to be completed in four years from the date of its sanction.

“For the middle class, Metro is the most important mode of transportation as it is clean and affordable,” Vaishnaw said, adding that the decision was in line with the infrastructural push of the Union government.

The extension will also connect Shaheed Sthal New Bus Adda station in Ghaziabad with Nathupur in Haryana via Delhi, which will likely boost connectivity across the National Capital Region.

The stations on the corridor will include Rithala, Rohini sectors 25, 26, 31, 32, 36, Barwala, Rohini Sectors 35, 34, Bawana Industrial Area - 1 Sector 3,4, Bawana Industrial Area-1 Sector 1, 2, Bawana JJ Colony, Sanoth, New Sanoth, Depot Station, Bhorgarh village, Anaj Mandi Narela, Narela DDA Sports Complex, Narela, Narela Sector 5, Kundli and Nathpur. All of them will be elevated.

There will be no interchange stations on the extended corridor.

This corridor will be Delhi Metro’s fourth extension into Haryana. Presently, the network operates up to Gurugram, Ballabhgarh, and Bahadurgarh in the state.

Construction of Phase-4, consisting of 65.2km and 45 stations, is underway, and so far around 56% of construction has been completed, the government said.

The minister added that under the Modi regime, the Metro network in the country has spread to 23 cities from the four cities earlier. “Work between 2014 and 2024 is four times than that of the work done in the previous 40 years,” he said.

The Metro corporation is currently building three corridors under the Phase 4 plan — the Golden Line (Aerocity-Tughlakabad) and extensions of the Magenta (RK Ashram-Janakpuri West) and Pink (Majlis Park-Maujpur) lines, and the extension of the Red Line announced on Friday. These three corridors are likely to be completed in stages by March 2026, according to a release.

In March, the Union cabinet approved the extension of two new Delhi Metro corridors for the Phase 4 project — one from Inderlok in northwest Delhi to Indraprastha in the east, and the other from Lajpat Nagar to Saket G-Block in the south. These two are likely to be completed by 2029, and will be built for ₹8,399 crore officials aware of the plan had said.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation presently operates 12 Metro lines of about 392km with 288 stations in Delhi and NCR.