Gradual rise in avg daily riders for Delhi Metro over last 3 mths: Official

There has been a gradual rise in Delhi Metro's average daily ridership over the last three months with the reopening of schools and organisations operating in hybrid mode being top factors

There has been a gradual rise in Delhi Metro's average daily ridership over the last three months with the reopening of schools and organisations operating in hybrid mode being the contributing factors, a top DMRC official has said.

Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) chief Vikas Kumar on Tuesday evening said several metros across the globe have seen a reduction of about 20 per cent in their ridership due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

For the Delhi Metro, the average daily ridership in July stood at 42.64 lakh. The ridership figures for June and May were 41.90 lakh 39.48 lakh respectively, suggesting that there is a gradual increase, he said.

A senior official said, the pre-Covid ridership (journeys or line utilisation) was about 60 lakh.

DMRC uses the metric of journey or line utilisation, which is calculated by the number of corridors passengers use to reach their destination.

Kumar said the reopening of schools and several organisations operating in hybrid mode (from office and work from home provisions) have led to an improvement in ridership figure in the past few weeks, even as he expressed hope that by the end of December, it would catch up with the pre-Covid level.

"During the initial phase of the pandemic, people got used to shopping online and this trend continues. So, this factor too has affected the ridership as less people are going to markets to shop," he added.

The Yellow Line still accounts for the largest segment of ridership (28.13 per cent) followed by the Blue Line (22 per cent), according to data shared by officials.

DMRC's phase IV project has also been impacted by the pandemic, officials said.

The work on phase IV had begun in December 2019 with a groundbreaking ceremony, but it was hit after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 in Delhi.

Officials on Tuesday had said that the Majlis Park-Maujpur corridor of the phase IV project is expected to be completed "on schedule" by November 2024, however, timelines for the other two lines may be reviewed owing to constraints imposed by the pandemic.

Asked if he saw any cost escalation due to Covid factor, Kumar said, he didn't see any major cost overrun as to the timelines of the phase IV project, but timelines might be impacted due to the pandemic.

At present, the DMRC is undertaking construction work on 65.2 km of three priority corridors spanning 45 stations under the project -- Janakpuri West-RK Ashram Marg (28.92 km), Majlis Park-Maujpur (12.55 km), which are extensions of the already operational Magenta Line and Pink Line respectively, and Tughalakabad-Aerocity (23.62 km) that is being built as 'Silver Line', connecting the operational Violet Line and Airport Line from the respective ends.