2 Metro Stations Named To Honour Martyrs: Civilian Flights From UP’s Hindon Airport Will Take Off In May

AS requested by the Uttar Pradesh Government, two Metro Rail stations in Delhi’s 9.63-km-long Dilshad Garden-New Bus Adda Section, part of Red Line, have been renamed to honour who were martyred to defend their motherland’s territorial integrity and unity. The Rajendra Nagar Metro Station has been rechristened as Major Mohit Sharma Rajendra Nagar station and the end station New Bus Adda has been renamed to Shaheed Sthal (New Bus Adda), said an official of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation. The decision to rename the metro stations has been taken as the nation is mourning the dastardly killings of 44 CRPF jawans by a suicide bomber   in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district on February 14.After the opening of the section, the Delhi Metro network will span 336.6 km with 244 metro stations. The DMRC’s span in Uttar Pradesh would be 52.85 km.”It would also be the first time, when any station in the existing DMRC network in Uttar Pradesh, would carry the name of a martyr,” the official said.The six other stations on the Red Line extension stretch are Shahid Nagar, Raj Bagh, Shyam Park, Mohan Nagar, Arthala and Hindon River Station. With this new section, the Delhi Metro will enter into the interiors of Ghaziabad for the first time and connect the industrial belts in the twin cities of Ghaziabad and Sahibabad with the NCR –National Capital Region including national capital New Delhi. This will be the second metro corridor in Ghaziabad, after the Blue Line, which links Delhi with the neighbouring city, including Kaushambi and Vaishali.”Since the stations are in Uttar Pradesh, any renaming happens from their end only. We had received a communication from the state government after it had been approved by authorities,” the DMRC official said.The Uttar Pradesh government had last month given its nod to change the name of two metro stations on the Dilshad Garden to New Bus Stand route. Incidentally, till mid-February, there was no change in names of any station on this extension route of the Red Line, and the signage boards carried original names.”The signage boards of Rajendra Nagar and New Bus Adda metro stations have been changed to Major Mohit Sharma Rajendra Nagar station and Shaheed Sthal (New Bus Adda) station, respectively. Ghaziabad District Magistrate Ritu Maheswari had late last month said that a request was sent to the state government by the district administration and the Ghaziabad Development Authority to change the name of the two metro stations after memoranda was received from Ghaziabad residents. It may be recalled that Major Mohit Sharma of 1 Para (Special Forces) was killed in a battle with terrorists in Hafruda forests of Jammu and Kashmir in March 2009.He was posthumously awarded Ashok Chakra, the country’s highest peace time gallantry medal. This section will be an extension of the 25.09-km Rithala-Dilshad Garden corridor or Red Line, which has 21 stations. After opening of this section, the entire Red Line will become 34.72 km. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 8 ,2019 inaugurated the new civil enclave in Ghaziabad district  of Uttar Pradesh ’s Hindon airport from where commercial flights would be operated to various places, including Shimla and Kannur. Hindon airport belongs to the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has developed the civil enclave there. Under the regional air connectivity scheme – UDAN -Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik — many airline operators have bagged routes connecting from Hindon. Flights would be operated to Nasik (Maharashtra), Pithoragarh (Uttarakhand), Kannur (Kerala), Hubli, Kalaburgi (Karnataka), Faizabad (Uttar Pradesh), Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) and Jamnagar (Gujarat).These UDAN flights would be operated from Hindon since there are infrastructure at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in the national capital which is also the busiest aerodrome in the country, according to the AAI.Civil enclaves are part of airports of armed forces that are used for commercial flights. The civil enclave built at a cost about INR 40 crore can handle 300 passengers during peak hours, as per the AAI.The airport Infrastructure was developed by the AAI while the approach road was constructed by the state government. Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Union Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu were among those present at the inaugural function, the AAI said in a release.