KOCHI: The Kochi Metro rail saw a sharp increase in ridership on Tuesday as the traffic on city roads remained standstill for several hours in the afternoon following waterlogging in the heavy rain. At 11pm, the ridership touched 96,916, an increase of nearly 32.94% from the average 65,000 in the recent days, a clear indication that Kochi Metro is emerging as the most preferred public transport system in the city. Officials reckoned the ridership to cross one-lakh mark at the end of the day. At 7pm, the ridership stood at nearly 85,000.
The recent highest ridership recorded on Kochi Metro was on June 17 when it had crossed one lakh-mark, but that was when the passengers were allowed to travel to any station at `5/ticket to mark its fifth anniversary. But Tuesday’s ridership is the first time that the ridership is touching one lakh-mark at the usual ticket fare.
It was on September 12, 2019, that the metro crossed the one-lakh ridership for the first time. That was immediately after inauguration of the new stretch from Maharaja’s College Ground to Thykoodam on September 3, 2019. Before Covid, the metro ridership had crossed the one-lakh mark at least three times.
RAIN AFFECTS TRAIN SERVICES FROM EKM JN RAILWAY STATION
Kochi: The downpour that lashed the city for more than an hour led to the short termination and re-routing of many trains on Tuesday. The services were affected after the signalling system developed snags following waterlogging. Trains 12618 Nizamuddin - Ernakulam Mangala Express and 06768 Kollam - Ernakulam Memu Express via Kottayam were terminated at Ernakulam Town and Tripunithura railway stations respectively. 16650 Nagarcoil-Mangaluru Parasuram Express and 12081 Kannur-Thiruvananth-apuram Jan Shatabdi Express were diverted via Ernakulam Town and Alappuzha respectively. In the evening, the services were back to normal.