Delhi Metro records highest ridership in February

New Delhi: After a drop in average ridership in October last, Delhi Metro has posted a steady rise in the figure, with nearly 27 lakh commuters taking the rapid transit network daily in February, officials said on Thursday.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) said between the opening of a corridor of the Magenta Line in December and a section of the Pink Line in March, ridership has seen an upward trend. The total number of interchange stations has now grown to 16.

The operational span of the network has now expanded to 252 km. “The highest ridership achieved in December 2017 was 25.64 lakh, while in January 2018, the figure stood at 26.85 lakh. The highest ridership in February has been even higher, at 26.98 lakhs,” the DMRC said.

A senior official said the five new interchange stations, Azadpur, Netaji Subash Place and Rajouri Garden on the Pink Line; and Botanical Garden and Kalkaji Mandir on the Magenta Line, will enable commuters to have access to a number of alternate and shorter routes from one point to another across Delhi-NCR region.

“This is for the first time that a record five new interchange stations have been added to the network in a period of just a little over two months,” he said.

While the 21.56 km-long Majlis Park-Durgabai Deshmukh South Campus section of the Pink Line was opened to public on Wednesday, the 12.94 km-long Kalkaji Mandir-Botanical Garden corridor of  Magenta Line was opened on December 25 last.

The 11 old stations are — Kashmere Gate, Rajiv Chowk, Central Secretariat, Sikanderpur, Yamuna Bank, Kirti Nagar, Dwarka Sec-21, New Delhi, Ashok Park Main, Inderlok and Mandi House. The new sections and interchange stations of Phase 3 will help in addition of new passengers, and help decongest some stations once the entire Phase-3 is operational.