Inching towards its projected ridership of 20 lakh by this year-end, Delhi Metro recorded its highest-ever ridership on Monday with 18 lakh people opting for the modern transport system in the national capital.
On Monday, 18.30 lakh people took the Metro from 6 AM to 11 PM on all its six operational corridors with the Noida/ Vaishali Line alone registering a ridership of 7.30 lakh, officials said.
Monday’s ridership broke the previous record of 17.71 lakh registered on July 25.
“Within six days of registering its highest ever ridership, the Delhi Metro has broken this record also yesterday when over 18 lakh people travelled on the Metro throughout the day,” DMRC spokesman Anuj Dayal said.
From its initial figure of 82,000 in December 2002, Metro’s ridership is increasing steadily since 2009 after the Noida, Gurgaon and other small corridors were thrown open to public.
Since January this year, the increase in ridership is significant with almost 2.5 lakh passengers being added to the system.
Delhi Metro has projected its ridership to touch 20 lakh by the end of this year.
DMRC is registering an increased ridership on each of the working days for the past two months. The average ridership which used to be around 15.5 lakh during weekdays till May 2011 is now touching 17 lakh on work days, an increase of over 1.5 lakh passengers daily.
On Monday, the over-crowded Dwarka Sec—21 to Noida City Centre/Vaishali recorded the maximum ridership at 7.33 lakh followed by Gurgaon Line at 6.41 lakh and Rithala Line at 2.98 lakh.
The Metro stations which have witnessed a significant increase in ridership are Barakhamba Road, Mandi House, Rajendra Place, Mohan Estate, Noida Sec—16, Central Secretariat, Patel Chowk, Vishwavidyalaya, Udyog Bhawan, Tis Hazari and Garden Estate.
Currently, the Delhi Metro is operational on six lines where more than 2,500 train trips are made each day traversing over 69,000 km in a day.
With Phase-III expected to cover about 108 kilometers, the Metro network will become 295 kilometers by 2016 carrying about 40 lakh passengers.
