New Delhi:
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kerjiwal has not been invited for the inauguration of Delhi Metro’s newly-built Magenta Line that will be flagged off by PM Modi on December 25.
"We have no official intimation of the programme. Our top-most priority is a safe Metro for the passengers and at a reasonable price. So far as the inauguration is concerned we haven't received any invitation. The question must better be put to the DMRC and Urban Development Ministry," news agency IANS quoted a Delhi government spokesperson as saying.
Kejriwal and Centre government has been locked in a bitter battle over several issues and the recent one was Delhi Metro’s "unprecedented" fare hike.
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), however, said it has not sent out invites since the Uttar Pradesh government was organising the event.
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“The DMRC is not inviting anyone. We haven’t sent out invites since the UP government is organising the event. So we do not have any say on the list of invitees,” a metro official said on condition of anonymity.
In 2015, when the prime minister had flagged off the Faridabad corridor, the metro had sent out media invites in coordination with the Haryana government.
The metro official said that this time no such invite has come.
Spanning across 12.64 km, Delhi Metro Magenta Line is India's first driverless train service that will connect Botanical Garden in Noida to Delhi's Kalkaji Metro Station.
DMRC is using a new high tech signalling technology called the Communication Based Train Control (CBTC) to run unmanned trains on Magenta Line.
(With PTI inputs)
