Delhi Opens First Underground Metro SectionPrime Minister Manmohan Singh on 19th December, 2004 inaugurated the first underground section of the New Delhi metro, a move expected to cut pollution and improve life for 14 million people crowded into India's traffic-choked capital. Singh pulled a lever giving a green signal to the first train to roll down the 4.12 km stretch from Delhi University to Kashmere Gate, one of the main bus terminals in North Delhi. It will take less than seven minutes to travel between the two stations as against at least half-an-hour by road. The trains will have four stops in this section: Delhi University (Vishwa Vidyalaya), Old Secretariat, Civil Lines and Kashmere Gate. Line 1 is already operating trains between Shahdara in East Delhi and Rithala in the West on an elevated track. Kashmere Gate station, located 17 m below ground, serves as the interchange between overground and underground tracks. Line 1 (21.3 km) and Line 2 (4.1 km) cover a distance of 25.4 km. In the next phase, seven more kilometres will be added from Kashmere Gate to Central Secretariat by June 2005.The system will be extended to 62 km by December 2005, with Line 3 scheduled to open in two phases in 2005, boosting capacity to 2.2 million passengers a day and theoretically eliminating 2,600 buses. However, only 130,000 people a day, or 1% of New Delhi's population, now ride the city's rail network. Nearly 10,000 new cars hit the roads every month in New Delhi, which rivals with Mexico City as the world's most polluted capital. Subscribe to E-News Weekly 38/2004. Click in/11. Visit www.delhimetrorail.com 53/04-01/05. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh delivers a speech during the inauguration ceremony of New Delhi's first 4.12 km underground section on Line 2