The average daily ridership recorded by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) for the months of May, June and July, this year, has been the lowest since 2015, a Right To Information (RTI) reply received from the DMRC has revealed.
Data provided by the DMRC, in response to an RTI filed by The Hindu , revealed that despite being the peak summer months, approximately 23.51 lakh commuters availed the metro in May this year as opposed to an average of 27.1 lakh commuters for the same period in 2017, on a daily basis.
However, a senior DMRC spokesperson said that the ridership “has picked up and is touching 30 lakh now”.
Daily ridership
When compared to 2017’s data for the month of June and July, the RTI query reveals that there has been a 5.9% and 5.73% dip respectively.
While in June 2017 the metro recorded a daily average of 26.29 lakh commuters, for the month of July 2017, it was 27.24 lakh commuters.
On the contrary, the average daily ridership for the months of May, June and July for the year 2015, before the fare hike, were approximately 24.24 lakh, 25.56 lakh and 26.14 lakh commuters respectively, despite the Pink and Magenta Lines not being operational. For 2016, the daily ridership for the months of May, June and July for the year 2016 was around 27 lakh daily. The metro had seen a second round of fare hike in October 2017.
While the first corridor of the Magenta Line became operational for passenger services in December 2017, the first segment of the Pink Line was thrown open to the public in March this year.
The DMRC over the last few months, have made the entire Magenta Line (Janakpuri West-Botanical Garden) and the Pink Line corridor between Majlis Park-Lajpat Nagar — operational — both of which are a part of its Phase III project.
Seamless transfer
Highlighting the need for a policy for “seamless transfer between different modes of transport”, Centre for Science and Environment executive director, research and advocacy, Anumita Roychowdhury said, “There needs to be a policy to ensure seamless transfer between various modes of transport including the metro and the DTC buses, for example. This also includes a fare-integration policy where the commuter will not be charged any penalty for the transfer. The fare policy should be such that the total commuting cost is viable for all.”
Attributing multiple factors like poor last-mile connectivity, to the dip in ridership, former IIT-Delhi Professor Dinesh Mohan said, “Last-mile connectivity continues to be a hassle as one cannot take the shortest route due to gated offices, colonies and so on. Second, multiple studies have shown that commuters now prefer to share cabs, as it is a cheaper and more viable option than taking the metro and worrying about last mile connectivity.”
