In an exclusive, Sowmiya Ashok and photographer Meeta Ahlawat take a look at the new INA metro station that is coming up over an existing metro tunnel

Descending down the surface at the Metro site adjacent to Dilli Haat reveals a hub of activity with men in safety jackets, helmets and hard-soled shoes hurrying around. Some lift heavy hammers, others drag long rods and a couple curiously glance at the visitors in safety gear.

At the far end, plywood pieces have been used to board a large square through which two years from now a Metro train will whizz into this station.

This is the upcoming INA station on the ‘Brown Line’ that will connect Mukundpur to Shiv Vihar with the rail level just seven metres below the ground. The team of officials and Metro workers here are creating history. “For the first time in the history of Metro construction, a station is being built over an existing tunnel,” says a Delhi Metro Rail Corporation official, referring to the tunnel that connects INA to AIIMS on the Jahangirpuri-HUDA City Centre line.

“Yes, there are examples of Metro constructions were tunnels are going over other tunnels in Japan and Europe but this is the first time you will see a station above a tunnel,” he says, pointing out that Metro trains are operating below the ground he is standing on.

With 42 per cent of the civil work for the station completed, tunnelling for both the up and down tunnels at this location on target, the Delhi Metro is looking ahead at welcoming the over 1.29 lakh commuters daily that will use this as an interchange station in 2016.

Without going to the heart of the city – Rajiv Chowk or Central Secretariat – commuters travelling from this station can connect to the Blue Line at Rajouri Garden and the Violet Line at Lajpat Nagar apart from accessing the busy Sarojini Nagar market or jumping onto the Yellow Line.

Commuters passing by this station will in fact see an unusual station here with the platform level constructed above the concourse level for the first time in the Delhi Metro’s construction.

“This is being done here because of the height variation between the existing INA station and the upcoming new INA station owing to the already existing Metro tunnel at this location,” says the official.

“Basically, Delhi Metro has had to modify the station design to adjust to the new circumstances”, pitches in another official.

Almost all of the station designs for Phase-III of constructions are indigenous designs. “During Phase-I we had little experience on how to go about it so we relied heavily on the way Metro networks overseas were built. Phase-II was a combination of borrowed and our own designs and this phase of construction will see our own designs,” says an official.

With the new station built at a depth of 16 metres below the ground level, the new and the old tunnels will be separated by only a metre. “The ‘cut and cover’ technique is being used over the existing operational tunnel which means we can excavate only in compartments. The tunnel when it was built was held together firmly in the ground and now we are attempting to build over it,” says the official. Four kinds of instruments to monitor the track levels, to measure any displacement of the existing tunnels, provide real-time tracking for officials to keep an eye out, adds the official.

Plans are also drawn up for an elaborate green space above the station level. By 2016, the concrete slabs, the dust and the brown environs will be replaced with a large green space and park benches for visitors to relax on. Perhaps, after a shopping trip to Sarojini or Lajpat Nagar, commuters can take a quick breather here.