Come Sunday and the much awaited Heritage Corridor of the Delhi Metro+ will be finally opened for the use of the public — and it will facilitate a direct ride from Faridabad in Haryana to Kashmere Gate, 43km away. Completing the 9.37km Heritage Line, which itself is a portion of the Violet Line between Janpath and now Kashmere Gate, the 5.17-km-long section onward from ITO will be inaugurated on May 28 by union urban development minister M. Venkaiah Naidu and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. Delhi Metro will start carrying people onward to Kashmere Gate from noon that day.

The four stations on the section — Delhi Gate, Jama Masjid, Lal Quila and Kashmere Gate — will take the number of stations in the Delhi Metro network to 164, while extending the length of the urban rail system to 218km. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) expects 90,000 people to eventually use the Heritage Line daily. "It will, however, take some time for the ridership to go up to this figure. We don't expect a footfall of 90,000 from day one itself," a DMRC official said.

The corridor has been designated as the Heritage Line as it goes past various historical landmarks such as Jantar Mantar, Delhi Gate, Jama Masjid and Red Fort. "After the commissioning of the section from ITO, residents of Faridabad and the south Delhi localities of Govindpuri, Kalkaji, Nehru Place, East of Kailash, etc will be able to travel directly to Old Delhi and vice versa," a DMRC spokesperson said.

Commuters travelling on the Yellow Line between Central Secretariat and Kashmere Gate will also then have the alternative of using the Violet Line to reach the same destinations. This will result in the decongestion of certain stations, like Rajiv Chowk.

On Sunday, the Kashmere Gate station will also become the first interchange facility of the Delhi Metro system to provide interconnectivity among three corridors — the Violet, Red and Yellow Lines. DMRC said that it has arranged seamless and smooth connectivity between the newly constructed station at Kashmere Gate and the existing Red Line (Dilshad Garden-Rithala) and Yellow Line (HUDA City Centre-Samaypur Badli).

DMRC had tied up with heritage promoter INTACH for decor at the stations. "Since the corridor passes through areas of great historical importance, the stations have panels and artworks depicting the glory of the bygone era," the spokesperson said. He emphasised that adequate care had been taken during construction to ensure the monuments in proximity were not harmed. The National Monuments Authority cleared the Heritage Line on February 13, 2013.

The spokesperson added, "After the commissioning of this section, the entire 9.37km Central Secretariat-Kashmere Gate section will be operational and become a part of the 43.4km-long Escorts Mujesar-Kashmere Gate Violet Line. This corridor is also being currently extended by 3.2km from Escorts Mujesar to Ballabhgarh."