KOCHI: There has been a dip in ridership in Kochi Metro after the discount in fares was reduced to 20 per cent from 50 per cent from Thursday. But officials said there was nothing to worry about the decline in the number of riders.
From 70,000-90,000 passengers during the peak of Onam shopping, ridership came down to 61,949 on Thursday, the first day when the discount in fares was reduced to 20 per cent. On Friday, ridership stood at 60,128 at 9 pm.
Kochi Metro announced 50 per cent discount in fares when the new Thykoodam stretch was opened for the public from September 4. KMRL managing director A P M Mohammed Haneesh told Express that the ridership, in fact, fell to 70,000 in the four days -- September 15, 16, 17 and 19 -- immediately after Onam, when the 50 per cent discount in fares was in place. “As far as KMRL is concerned, the dip in ridership is only about 8,000-9,000 per day,” he said, adding that any number above 60,000 would ensure that Kochi Metro could make a healthy operating profit on a daily basis.
“Our objective is to find the right balance in pricing, where we could serve the public with the least possible fares while we could also make operating profits,” said Haneesh. “We will continue to experiment with the fares till we achieve the right combination and the right balance in pricing even while we recover our cost of operations,” he added.
Ridership of Kochi Metro shot up from nearly 40,000 per day before the Thykoodam stretch was opened to touch a new record of 1,01,983 on September 13. Haneesh said Kochi Metro has been posting operating profit since April. He said only 50 per cent of the daily revenue comes through ticket sales while the other half is earned via advertisements and rent from food courts, banks, financial institutions and Norka facilitation centres at Metro stations.
With a ridership of 60,000 per-day, Kochi Metro can run on an operating profit of `2 lakh-plus.
Date Ridership
20% discount
Sept 20 62,313
Sept 19 61,949
50% discount
Sept 18 67,691
Sept 17 69,715
Sept 16 71,255
Sept 15 79,638
Sept 14 95,851