The Delhi Metro is a rapid transit system serving Delhi and its satellite cities of Bahadurgarh, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, and Noida in the National Capital Region of India. By far the largest and busiest metro in India, and second oldest after the Kolkata Metro it is the world's 9th longest metro system and 16th largest by ridership. The network consists of eight color-coded regular lines, running 327 kilometers (203 mi) serving 236 stations. The system has a mix of underground, at-grade, and prominent stations using both broad-gauge and standard-gauge. Delhi Metro operates over 2,700 trips daily, starting at around 05:00 and ending at 23:30 hrs. In 2017-18, the Delhi Metro had an average daily ridership of 2.53 million passengers and a snowballing ridership of 0.926 billion passengers yearly.
Construction started in 1998, and the first section, on the Red Line, opened in 2002. The development of the network was divided into phases, Phase I containing 3 lines was completed by 2006, and Phase II in 2011. Phase III is currently under construction and is scheduled to be mostly complete by 2019. Phase IV having received approval, construction is predictable to start in 2019.
Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Limited (DMRC), a company with an equal equity contribution from the Government of India and the Government of Delhi, built and operate the Delhi Metro. DMRC was certified by the United Nations in 2011 as the first metro rail and rail-based system in the world to get carbon credits for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, reducing carbon emission levels in the city by 630,000 tonnes every year.
Delhi Metro also interchanges with the separately operated Rapid Metro Gurgaon, with a shared ticketing system
Commuters can now connect with the Delhi Metro on Facebook too, as the DMRC Wednesday open its official account on the social networking site. A senior official of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) said this was yet another step to reach out to riders and vice versa.
"We already have a Twitter hold and now we are on Facebook too — www.facebook.com/officialdmrc — and, soon we want to make a debut on Instagram too. We look forward to valuable feedback from people," he said.
The DMRC had officially launched an account on Twitter on December 20 last year. It has nearly 4,300 followers since the launch of the handle. "Opening new doors! Delhi Metro Rail Corporation is now on Facebook," the DMRC wrote in a post on the social networking site. The current prepared length of the Delhi Metro is 327 km with 236 stations, with an average daily ridership of about 28 lakh.
