Railway
The first corridor of the Delhi Metro was inaugurated in 2002 by:
Answer (Detailed Solution Below)View answer ▾Hide ▴
Answer: Option D — Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Detailed Solution
The first section of the Delhi Metro, between Shahdara and Tis Hazari on the Red Line (Line 1), was inaugurated by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on 24 December 2002. It was opened to the public the next day, 25 December 2002 (which is also Vajpayee's birthday). The first section was about 8.2 km long with six stations.
About the Delhi Metro:
It is built and run by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), set up in 1995 as a joint venture of the Government of India and the Government of Delhi.
Its first managing director was E. Sreedharan, who is called the "Metro Man of India". He had earlier built the Konkan Railway. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 2008.
It was built with financial help from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
It became the first metro rail project in the world to earn carbon credits under the UN's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), for its regenerative braking system.
It is one of the largest and busiest metro networks in the world, with lines extending into Gurugram, Noida, Ghaziabad, Faridabad and Bahadurgarh.
The Airport Express Line (Orange Line) connects New Delhi to the Indira Gandhi International Airport.
India's first metro:
- The Kolkata Metro was India's first metro rail system, starting on 24 October 1984 between Esplanade and Bhowanipur (Netaji Bhavan).
- In 2024, the Kolkata Metro started India's first underwater metro section, under the Hooghly river, between Howrah Maidan and Esplanade.
- India's first rapid rail service (RRTS), "Namo Bharat", started on the Delhi-Meerut corridor in 2023.
Why not the other options?
- ✗Manmohan Singh was Prime Minister from 2004 to 2014, after the first corridor opened.
- ✗P. J. Abdul Kalam was President of India in 2002, but the inauguration was done by the Prime Minister.
- ✗Sheila Dikshit was the Chief Minister of Delhi at the time and attended the event, but did not inaugurate it.
Quick tip
Remember: Delhi Metro first corridor = Shahdara-Tis Hazari (Red Line), inaugurated by PM Vajpayee on 24 December 2002; E. Sreedharan = "Metro Man"; first metro in India = Kolkata (1984).
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Industries & Transport in India — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of Industries & Transport in India, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.
This topic covers India's major industries (iron and steel, textiles, cement, sugar, automobiles and information technology) and their locations, along with the transport network: railways, roads and national highways, ports, airports and waterways. Common questions ask where a steel plant is located and which country helped build it (Bhilai with the Soviet Union, Rourkela with Germany and Durgapur with Britain), which city is called the 'Manchester of India', and facts about major ports, railway zones and national highways. Practise the industries and transport questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.