KOCHI:The Kochi Metro Rail Ltd (KMRL) is expecting the average ridership of Kochi Metro will increase to 60,000 passengers per day, from the present ridership of 40,000, once it reaches Petta. Briefing media persons on Tuesday in connection with the anniversary celebrations of Kochi Metro’s commercial operations, KMRL managing director A P M Muhammed Hanish said the agency is also hoping to bring down the income-expenditure gap considerably through the extension of services to Tripunithura.
“Kochi Metro launched its commercial operations on June 19, two days after the Prime Minister inaugurated it. The average ridership of Kochi metro was 20,000 passengers per day at the time of its launch. After extending the service to Maharaja’s College, the average ridership now stands between 35,000 and 45,000 passengers per day. The income-expenditure gap was `20 lakh initially. Now, we are able to bring it down to `12 lakh.
“That means the monthly loss was brought down from the initial figures of `6 crore to `3.60 crore. This figure will reduce considerably after the extension of service to Petta in 2019,” he said.He said the service will be extended further to SN Junction and Tripunithura railway station soon. “The land acquisition has begun for SN Jn extension and the alignment fixation for Tripunithura railway station extension is also progressing,” said Hanish.
In the second phase, Kochi Metro will be expanded to Kakkanad via Infopark. The renewed proposal, which is submitted before the state government, will be soon sent to the Union Government for the final nod. “The tender for the preparation of DPR for the service extension to Angamaly from Aluva via Nedumbassery is also floated,” added Hanish.
