Scorching heat, political protests and Delhi University (DU) admissions are keeping the cash registers of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) ringing with a record 11.34 lakh passengers taking the Metro on Monday, helping it earn revenues of a staggering Rs. 1.92 crore.
Monday’s record ridership can be attributed to the scorching heat with people opting for the air-conditioned transport system and also the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) protest in Jantar Mantar.
Scores of BJP workers used the Metro to reach the site.
DMRC officials also said the increase in ridership could be due to the admissions at the DU with thousands of students and parents travelling to the North Campus by Metro.
The ridership stood at 11,34,756 yesterday on all five operational corridors of the DMRC, which earned a revenue of Rs. 1.92 crore on one day.
The previous highest ridership of the Delhi Metro was 11.27 lakh on May 17 and on April 21 a total of 10,92,780 people travelled on the Metro, a DMRC spokesman said.
Of the 11.34 lakh passengers, the over-crowded Line 3 (Dwaraka Sec-9-Noida City Centre/Anand Vihar) registered the maximum ridership with 5.41 lakh followed by 2.87 lakh on Line 2 (Central Secretariat-Jahangirpuri), 2.66 lakh on Line 1 (Dilshad Garden-Rithala).
Over 39,000 passengers travelled on the newly-inaugurated Line-5 (Inderlok-Mundka). Over 10.5 lakh passengers use the Delhi Metro on normal weekdays.
In order to cater to the increasing ridership figures, Delhi Metro is rapidly adding to its fleet of 70 train sets which were procured for phase one operations.
Currently, there are over a hundred trains in operation on the five lines of Delhi Metro with a new train being added on the system every 10 to 15 days.
While Line 3 has 51 lines in operation, Line 2 and 1 have 25 trains each. Line 5, India’s first Standard Gauge corridor, has around 13 trains in service.
DMRC maintains a frequency of 4 minutes during peak hours (morning and evening rush hours) and 6 minutes during non-peak hours.
Delhi Metro trains are today traversing over 43,000 km in a day making over 1,900 trips on the five operational lines covering 111 kilometres.
Shravan, a software professional who usually drives down to his office in Connaught Place (CP) from Mayur Vihar, said he started using the Metro since last week to escape from traffic jams and the scorching sun.
“I am relieved now...I don’t have to be at the wheels for over an hour to reach CP, which is just a 20-minute drive from my home. Metro is good and I don’t have to bother about the heat outside. It has AC facility also,” he says.
The spokesman said the revenue which the DMRC gets from passengers and other sources are used to pay back the loan taken by the DMRC to build the Metro Project.
The Delhi Metro Project has been funded largely with Japanese assistance in the form of a Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) loan which stands at Rs. 13,035.03 crore as on date.
With the present operational set up and management, the DMRC has successfully repaid the loan amounting to Rs. 567.56 crore till March 31.
"However, during 2010-2011 the DMRC has to repay another Rs. 236 crore to JICA against the loan amount and the balance outstanding amount of Rs. 12,231.47 crore has to be paid back by DMRC in tranches (instalments) to JICA," the spokesman said.
