While the 15-day car-rationing scheme was a smooth sail for the Delhi Metro, the mass rapid transit system witnessed a surge of up to four lakh in its daily ridership during the period.
Even as there were major glitches on two of its busiest lines on day one of the odd-even drive (April 15), the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) claimed that its daily ridership remained “as expected” during this scheme.
Mostly, the ridership remained a lakh or two above the daily average of 26 lakh.
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Data provided by the DMRC indicated that on April 18, which was a Monday, witnessed the highest footfall when as many as 29.49 lakh commuters took the Metro.
“Overall, neither was the ridership low nor was it exceptionally high. April 18, was the day which tested the city’s public transport system as people returned to work after an extended weekend,” a metro spokesperson told The Hindu .
The first week of the scheme, which began on April 15, had an average daily ridership of 27.15 lakh during working days. The same was around 27.35 lakh in the second week. “The first day of the scheme saw a ridership of 22.23 lakh which is moderate considering it was a holiday. The ridership rose on the first working days of the week, that is on April 18 and April 25 to 29.49 lakh and 28.37 lakh respectively. But, it is not an unprecedented number as well,” said an official.
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The DMRC had pressed into service three additional trains and 56 extra train trips to cushion the pressure on its system, during the fortnight long odd-even drive. With the addition of trains and trips, a total of 200 trains ran during the odd-even period making around 3,248 trips daily, which was described by the corporation officials as the “maximum possible” deployment keeping the essential maintenance reserve.
First week of the scheme saw ridership of 27.15 lakh, second week saw 27.35 lakh; daily average is usually 26 lakh