Delhi Metro's Magenta Line fully operational, open from Tuesday
New Delhi, May 28: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Union Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Monday inaugurated the remaining portion of Delhi Metro's Magenta Line, making operational the full service running from Noida's Botanical Garden to west Delhi's Janakpuri.
The 25-km stretch from Kalkaji Mandir in south Delhi to Janakpuri West station was the longest stretch to be inaugurated in one go.
The section of the line connecting Botanical Garden with Kalkaji Mandir was opened last December.
Using the line, commuters will be able to reduce travel time between Noida and Gurugram to 50 minutes from the current over 90 minutes.
There will be four interchange stations on the entire line, connecting commuters with Blue, Yellow, and Violet Lines at these points.
After flagging off the train, Kejriwal congratulated the Delhi Metro Rail Corp for the new line and said it will "bring down pollution and traffic from the roads".
Asked what became of the six new lines proposed under phase-IV, he said his government's Finance Department had some issues with some of the lines but "the decision is under consideration" and he will soon take it up in the Cabinet.
Pressed for his views on Phase-IV, Puri said: "We have full faith that with the support of the Delhi government, we will be able to work on this."
Before this he had said: "Delhi Metro now has a network of 277 km. By December this year, it will reach the 380-km mark."
Totalling 104 km, phase-IV has six lines which are waiting for the approval of the Delhi government. Its Finance Department in April cleared three of the six corridors, but ruled out the others as commercially unviable. However, a final decision is yet to be made.
Janakpuri West-R K Ashram (28.92 km), Mukundpur-Maujpur (12.54 km) and Lajpat Nagar-Saket G Block (7.96 km) were the ones which had got the government's nod, while the Rithala-Bawana-Narela (21.7 km), Tughlakabad-Aerocity (20.2 km) and Inderlok-Indraprastha (12.6 km) corridors failed to do so.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismisses defence minister in surprise announcement
Jerusalem, Nov 5: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday dismissed his popular defence minister, Yoav Gallant, in a surprise announcement that came as the country is embroiled in wars on multiple fronts across the region.
Netanyahu and Gallant have repeatedly been at odds over the war in Gaza. But Netanyahu had avoided firing his rival. Netanyahu cited “significant gaps” and a “crisis of trust” between the men in his Tuesday evening announcement.
“In the midst of a war, more than ever, full trust is required between the prime minister and defence minister,” Netanyahu said. “Unfortunately, although in the first months of the campaign there was such trust and there was very fruitful work, during the last months this trust cracked between me and the defence minister.”
In the early days of the war, Israel's leadership presented a unified front as it responded to Hamas' October 7, 2023, attack. But as the war dragged on and spread to Lebanon, key policy differences have emerged. While Netanyahu has called for continued military pressure on Hamas, Gallant had taken a more pragmatic approach, saying that military force has created the necessary conditions for a diplomatic deal that could bring home hostages held by the Hamas group.
Gallant, a former general who has gained public respect with a gruff, no-nonsense personality, said in a statement: “The security of the state of Israel always was, and will always remain, my life's mission."
Gallant has worn a simple, black buttoned shirt throughout the war in a sign of sorrow over the October 7 attack and developed a strong relationship with his US counterpart, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin.
A previous attempt by Netanyahu to fire Gallant in March 2023 sparked widespread street protests against Netanyahu. He also flirted with the idea of dismissing Gallant over the summer but held off until Tuesday's announcement.
Gallant will be replaced by Foreign Minister Israel Katz, a Netanyahu loyalist and veteran Cabinet minister who was a junior officer in the military. Gideon Saar, a former Netanyahu rival who recently rejoined the government, will take the foreign affairs post.
Netanyahu has a long history of neutralising his rivals. In his statement, he claimed he had made “many attempts” to bridge the gaps with Gallant.
“But they kept getting wider. They also came to the knowledge of the public in an unacceptable way, and worse than that, they came to the knowledge of the enemy - our enemies enjoyed it and derived a lot of benefit from it,” he said.
