KOCHI: The Kochi Metro is slowly turning out to be a preferred travel mode of Kochiites who depend on modern transportation systems to escape from the clogged roads and reach destinations on time. The average daily ridership touched the 1-lakh milestone for the past six months even as the operating profit rose five times from Rs 5 crore in 2022-23 to Rs 22.94 crore in 2023-24.
“The ridership has gone up substantially. We could enjoy a daily ridership of 1 lakh passengers for at least 20 days a month from July 2024. On certain days, when we have football matches at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium or offers at LuLu, the daily ridership even touches the record 1,20,000 mark,” said a senior KMRL official, adding that Edappally station recorded the most passenger footfalls.
This even as the daily ridership exceeded the 1-lakh mark only on 40 days last year. The commuter patronage per day witnessed a steady rise from 18,552 passengers in 2020-21 to 31,229 in 2021-22 and to 68,168 commuters in 2022-23.
“The average ridership per day for the whole of 2023-24 is 88,292, while the average collection per day rose to Rs 27.29 lakh in 2023-24 from Rs 20.68 lakh in 2022-23,” the official said.
Operating profit touches Rs 22 crore
Meanwhile, the operating profit in 2023-24 rose to Rs 22.94 crore from Rs 5 crore in 2022-23. This comes at a time when the KMRL is looking to fund the planned expansion of the Kochi Metro system.
The Kochi Metro is currently implementing the Rs 1,957.05-crore phase 2 project, the 11.2-km Pink Line from Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium station to Infopark, which is targeted to be operational by August 2026. It has kicked off the process to further extend the metro connectivity to Infopark Phase 2.
Further, the KMRL plans to expand the metro from Aluva to the Cochin International Airport and also to extend to Fort Kochi from Ernakulam South. However, lack of funds has come as a hurdle. The KMRL has even written to the Central Government, seeking funds to fuel its future expansion plans.
“We have achieved operating profit for the past two years. We have managed to do this from a stage where we incurred an operating loss of Rs 56.56 crore in 2020-21. The operating profit jumped five times from Rs 5.35 crore in 2022-23 to Rs 22.94 crore in 2023-24,” the official said, adding the profits will help enhance funds for the ongoing expansion plans.
“We are in the process of preparing a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the Pink Line extension to Phase 2 campus. The draft has been finalised,” said a senior KMRL official.
Water Metro inching closer to ‘operational breakeven’
Meanwhile, the Kochi Water Metro is eyeing to achieve the operational breakeven “in a couple of months” since it began the services in April 23, 2023, as it inches closer to the average daily ridership target of 7,000 passengers.
It achieved a key milestone while the total ridership crossed the 3-million mark.
“We need to operate one more route to touch the 7,000-mark. We are gearing up to start services in the High Court-Mattancherry section soon. We are also increasing the frequency of boats in existing routes. We have now floated new tenders for buying 15 boats having a passenger capacity (PC) of 100 people to facilitate this (breakeven),” said a senior Water Metro official.