ITO metro station
 ITO | |||||||||||
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| Delhi Metro station | |||||||||||
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| Line(s) | Violet Line | ||||||||||
| Platforms | Island (Violet Line) | ||||||||||
| Construction | |||||||||||
| Structure type | Underground | ||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||
| Opened | 8 June 2015 | ||||||||||
| Services | |||||||||||
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The ITO metro station is a station on the Delhi Metro, under the Violet Line. It was inaugurated on 8 June 2015 by the Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. It is the current terminus of the Violet Line, before being expanded towards Kashmere Gate in 2016.
The ITO metro station was one of the most awaited stations of the Delhi Metro under Phase III expansion. Whereas the opening of the Mandi House metro station, which is also an interchange station now, took a chunk of the load off the Rajiv Chowk metro station. The ITO metro station is expected to take some of the surface traffic off the ITO intersection, which witnesses heavy traffic jams due to a number of private and commercial vehicles, coming from South and East Delhi, which is the main arterial road for the people residing in those areas. According to Delhi Police, the ITO intersection is one of the most congested areas in the city, with the entire flow of traffic from east Delhi to the rest of the city and vice versa. going through this intersection. Over 1.75 lakh vehicles use the ITO intersection every day.
With the opening of the ITO metro station, a number of commuters whose offices are located in the ITO area as expected to switch to the metro. As per estimates of the Delhi Metro, around 25,000 commuters are expected to use the station by 2016. The number will go up to over 35,000 by 2021, said a Delhi Metro official. Besides the Income Tax Office and the Delhi Police Headquarters, the area houses offices of various government departments as well as prominent newspaper offices besides the iconic Bal Bhawan, Gandharva Mahavidyalaya, Pearey Lal Bhawan, CAG office, MAMC, Ambedkar Stadium, Feroz Shah Kotla Ground, Old Delhi Market and several others.
The ITO metro station is the last station to be opened individually before the entire corridor is commissioned in 2016. Part of the 'Heritage Line', the station is followed by stations - Delhi Gate, Jama Masjid, Red Fort and Kashmere Gate.
The station was finished in September 2014 and trial runs began in December 2014. However, operations on the 971-metre section between Mandi House and ITO were not started as safety inspection could not be carried out as per provisions of the Metro Railway General Rules. The Urban Development Ministry had amended and notified changes to the Metro Railway General Rules, 2013, to allow operations on single-line sections, which was a major stumbling block in operationalising the line. Originally, scheduled to open in March 2015, it was opened for public use on 8 June 2015.
For now being the new terminus of the Violet Line, going uptill Faridabad, the metro station will connect ITO to South Delhi, East Delhi and the satellite city of Faridabad. It will also provide easy connectivity to thousands coming from rest of the city through interchange stations on the Violet Line. From ITO, commuters can access the Blue Line (Dwarka Sector 21 to Noida City Centre/Vaishali) as well as the Yellow Line (HUDA City Centre to Badli). In fact, it will also provide accessibility to all the lines of the Delhi Metro network through the various interchange stations on the corridor. [1]