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Monsoon arrives in North India

Delhi Airport Metro line shut from today

New Delhi, July 7
Train services on the Delhi Airport Metro Express Line (DAMEL) would be suspended from tomorrow for around two months due to a civil structure defect.
The announcement was made by the Secretary of the Union Urban Development Ministry Sudhir Krishna after a meeting of officials of the ministry, the Delhi Government, Delhi Metro and Reliance Infrastructure (the operator of the line).
The defect was detected during a recent annual inspection. The Reliance Infrastructure-led consortium has found that 250 bearings out of the total 2,100 (bearings are concrete structures on top of pillars on which girders rest) on the elevated corridors are “shaky”.
The Reliance Infrastructure had informed the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation about the defect in writing on June 7, sources said.
The trains run at a speed of 105 km/hr on the 23-km line, which connects New Delhi Railway Station to Indira Gandhi International Airport. The government has constituted a committee comprising director-level officers of the Northern Railways, Delhi Metro and Reliance Infrastructure to carry out an inquiry. The panel would submit a report within 10 days after which rectification work would be carried out.
”The Reliance Infrastructure reported that there are some defects in the civil structure. There are problems with the bearing. Repairs have to be done below the girders,” Sudhir Krishna said today. "By the end of August we expect the line to be functional again," he added.
Sumit Banerjee of Reliance Infra said the corridor was not making profits, but added that the operator would continue to run the line and would not close it down. "The decision to susp