With 2016 set as the goal post for completing construction of Phase-III, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation is gearing up to complete the project within the tight schedule and estimated completion cost. “Phase-II was completed in half the time taken for Phase-I with the Commonwealth Games as the goal. For Phase-III we will proceed with the same conviction,” said DMRC Managing Director Mangu Singh, speaking at DMRC's 18th Foundation Day celebrations here this last week. With most of the high-value contracts having been finalised, detailed layouts of all stations and alignments finalised, work has already begun in three corridors -- Central Secretariat to Kashmere Gate, Jahangirpuri to Badli and the extension from Badarpur. Recognising that the middle-level management is the backbone of the project, the DMRC has also provided specialised training of its middle-level personnel and has set up a centralised control centre to monitor the tunnel boring machines that will be in operation during the construction. Mr. Singh said there was a need to develop skills in interfacing, managing and coordinating since competency building was a big challenge. For this reason, the Delhi Metro trained 76 such officers in three batches at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, in specially designed courses. In addition, refresher courses were conducted for officers at the Deputy Chief Engineer level at DMRC's Shastri Park Training Institute. Since the underground component under Phase-III that connects 103 km of the Capital with the metro is quite high, about 25 tunnel boring machines will be working during peak periods, he said. In order to monitor the performance of the tunnel boring machines in the sensitive areas, a centralised control centre shall be set-up with connectivity through GPS to all the tunnel boring machines. “The Delhi Metro is already part of Nova-metros, a consortium of fourteen medium sized metro systems from around the world. Soon we will also be part of the international organisation for large metro systems,” he said. The Delhi Metro will procure additional rolling stock to meet the requirements of Phase-III. Tenders have been floated for the purchase of 486 new standard gauge coaches (3.2 metre wide stock) and 92 standard gauge coaches (2.9 meter wide stock). Extensions to Shiv Vihar – 3 km, Najafgarh – 5.5 km and Bahadurgarh - 11 km is in the pipeline.