Fare hike costs Delhi Metro three lakh commuters a day

(Eds: Adds data, reactions from DMRC, political leaders)By Sourav Roy BarmanNew Delhi, Nov 24 (PTI) Delhi Metro lost over three lakhcommuters a ...

(Eds: Adds data, reactions from DMRC, political leaders)By Sourav Roy BarmanNew Delhi, Nov 24 (PTI) Delhi Metro lost over three lakhcommuters a day after a steep fare hike came into effect onOctober 10, an RTI query has revealed.

The metro's daily average ridership came down to 24.2lakh in October from 27.4 lakh in September, translating to afall of around 11 per cent.

The Blue Line, considered the metro's busiest, lost over30 lakh commuters, according to data shared by the Delhi MetroRail Corporation (DMRC) in response to an RTI query by a PTIcorrespondent.

The 50-km corridor connects Dwarka to Noida. The metrocurrently has a 218-km network across Delhi-NCR.

The fall, in terms of absolute numbers, was over 19 lakhon the Yellow Line, another busy corridor which connectsGurgaon to north Delhi's Samaypur Badli, DMRC said.

Ridership on the Violet Line, which connects ITO toFaridabad, plunged by 11.9 lakh in October. The number ofriders on the Red Line, from Dilshad Garden to Rithala, camedown by 7.5 lakh.

Ridership has come down several notches from the numbersobserved in recent years, bucking a trend of rise on theback of the launch of newer sections.

In fact, in October 2016, the metro's daily averageridership was 27.2 lakh, despite a comparatively shorteroperational route.

DMRC effected the fare hike on October 10, leading to arise of around Rs 10 for nearly every distance slab. This camebarely five months of another hike of up to 100 per cent.

The revised fare structure is: up to 2 km -- Rs 10,2 to 5 km -- Rs 20, 5 to 12 km -- Rs 30, 12 to 21 km -- Rs 40,21 to 32 km -- Rs 50 and for journeys beyond 32 km -- Rs 60.

Till May, the metro transported around 28 lakh passengersdaily. After the first phase of the hike in May, the metrolost nearly 1.5 lakh passengers per day in June as ridershipdropped to 25.7 lakh.

However, ridership picked up from around July.

In July and August this year, Delhi Metro witnessed dailyaverage ridership of 26.6 lakh and 27 lakh respectively.

Last year, in July, August and September, the metro'sdaily average ridership figures were 26.9 lakh, 28.5 lakh and28.4 lakh, respectively, reflecting a trajectory of sustainedgrowth.

DMRC -- which had maintained the fare hike was essentialto maintain financial as well as operational health -- said ina statement that the drop in ridership is not solely becauseof increase in fares.

Reacting to the report, it said the month of October hadholidays owing to festivals such as Diwali, Chhath Pooja andBhai Duj.

"In the month of October there were 5 Sundays incomparison to 4 in September and ridership remains less onholidays than on weekdays. This monthly variation in ridershipis dependent on multiple factors like seasons, vacations,holidays, festivals etc," it said.

The Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government had mounted stiffopposition to the hike, leading to a confrontation with theCentre.

"That many passengers have taken to other means oftransport, thus increasing pollution and congestion on roads.

Metro fare hike has not benefited anyone," Kejriwal tweetedtoday.

"Delhi Metro admits in its RTI response to PTI that itsridership decreased by 11% following a steep fare hike inOctober. Result of misplaced priorities by an unaccountableBoard!" Kejriwal's media advisor Nagendar Sharma added.

Asked to comment on the drop in number of passengers,Union minister Vijay Goel said efforts would be made toincrease the number of passengers.

"If need be I will raise the issue of fare hike at theCentre," he said.

His colleague, Union Minister of Housing and UrbanAffairs Hardeep Singh Puri, had said earlier that the Centrewas in no position to disregard the recommendations of a FareFixation Committee which had drawn up the revised fare list.

Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken also weighed in with hisview and said both the Kejriwal government and the Centre wereresponsible for the fall in ridership.

"The Delhi chief secretary was a part of the farefixation panel. Kejriwal government gave DMRC chief ManguSingh an extension of four years. The panel's report had comeon September 2016. Was the Kejriwal government sleeping allthis while?" he said on Twitter. PTI SBRMIN.

This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.

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