BENGALURU:Even as Namma Metro is all set to launch services on new stretch of Phase-I on Monday, ridership on the key M G Road stretch, the first Metro line to be launched in the city, registered a decline in the last two months which witnessed bandhs and holidays.
The East-West Corridor, which comprises the 6.7-km stretch from M G Road to Byappanahalli (Purple Line) touched its lowest ridership in September when the figures for the last seven months were analysed — 5,02,913 passengers.
This was nearly 55,000 lesser than the previous month and 2,000 less than April, which had the least ridership since the beginning of this financial year. Ridership improved in October, but it was around 23,000 less than in August.
Meanwhile, the entire Green Line stretch of the North-South Corridor from Nagasandra to Sampige station (Reaches 3, 3A and 3B), which also registered a dip in September has bounced back in a big way, with October notching up its best ever ridership figure for the last seven months.
When asked about the reasons for the dip in passenger traffic, Chief Public Relations Officer U A Vasant Rao said, “We had two holidays due to bandhs in September (Sept 2 and 26) which resulted in a reduction in commuters.”
It may be recalled that there were five state government holidays in October: two Dasara holidays, Muharram, Valmiki Jayanti and Gandhi Jayanti.
The Green Line, meanwhile, has taken the lead over the Purple Line since May this year largely due to the Reach 3B extension by 2.5 km between Nagasandra and Peenya Industry, which was inaugurated on May 1.
The figures from April to October reveal an average of 18,000 commuters per day on Purple Line and around 26,000 commuters on the Green Line. According to the BMRCL audit report for the financial year 2014-2015, uploaded on its website recently, the average daily ridership on Reach-1 was 16,336. This is a decrease of 8.39 per cent from 2013-2014’s average which stood at 17,883.
Also, the average per day ridership on the Green Line in 2014-2015 was 15,153, a decrease of 38.42 per cent over the previous financial year which stood at 24,606 (this excludes Reach 3B, an extension line from Peenya Metro station to Nagasandra Station, which was not yet launched then).
Officials refused to give a figure on the daily loss incurred by Metro in its operations. According to the audit report, BMRCL incurred an operational cash loss of `33.12 crore in 2014-2015, 26.75 per cent higher than the previous year. The loss was mainly on account of additional reaches opened for commercial operations, it added.