(This story originally appeared in on Mar 31, 2019)

NEW DELHI: Construction work for the much-delayed Phase IV project of Delhi Metro will start around Diwali this year. With the Centre’s approval for three of the six proposed corridors in place, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) is going to start geo-technical surveys and detailed drawings of civil structures before tenders are finalised and floated.The process is expected to take about six months with construction on ground expected to begin around October.On March 7, the Union cabinet approved three of the six proposed corridors of Delhi Metro’s Phase IV project, totalling 61.6kms of the total 104km project, with 17 underground and 29 elevated stations. The three approved corridors are Janakpuri West to RK Ashram Marg, Delhi Aerocity to Tughlaqabad and Maujpur to Mukundpur. Of the three corridors approved, 22.3 km will be underground while the remaining 39.3km will be elevated.With work on the Phase III long over, DMRC will now have to start work on Phase IV from scratch. Contractors engaged in the Phase-III project have demobilised their men and machinery and will have to remobilise its force once tenders are floated and finalised.“Most of the preliminary site surveys and studies are done for the proposed corridors during the preparation of the detailed project report itself. The geo-technical survey will soon start,” a DMRC official said.DMRC is also expected to start preparation of detailed designs of stations and viaducts. “The preparation of drawings, including structural drawings will take up to three months. The process of finalising and floating tenders can only start after the drawings are prepared,” he said.A major concern for DMRC at this point is the finalisation of loan-providing agency. Sources said the process of finalising a loan-providing agency is also going to start very soon.Although three other corridors of the Phase IV project — Rithala to Narela, Inderlok to Indraprastha and Lajpat Nagar to Saket G Block — are yet to be approved, DMRC officials are confident that the overall work of the project wouldn’t be hampered even if approval for these corridors come later.“Once the approvals for the rest of the three corridors come, it wouldn’t take much time to start work on them,” the official said. “Even Phase III started as a 103 km project but extensions and corridors kept getting added and we ended up constructing nearly 150 kms,” he said.Work on Phase IV project is expected to take up to five years and if construction starts by October 2019, it is expected that the project will be completed by end of 2024.