KOCHI: Both the Kochi Metro Rail Ltd and the Kochi Water Metro Ltd will extend operating hours on December 31 to manage the festive rush and facilitate safe travel after the New Year celebrations, officials said.
Metro services will run till 1am on New Year’s Eve on the Aluva-Tripunithura corridor, with trains operating in both directions. “While the extension of service hours has been finalised, we are still deliberating on how the frequency of trains should be,” an official said.
Water metro services will also be extended till 4am on December 31. However, officials said the routes and frequency of services during the extended hours are still under discussion. “We will announce that closer to the date,” the official added.
The decision follows consistently high ridership during the Christmas-New Year period in previous years. In December last year, Kochi metro recorded a monthly ridership of over 32 lakh passengers, earning a revenue of over Rs 10 crore. On New Year’s Eve alone (2023), 1.3 lakh commuters travelled on the metro. In comparison, the metro had carried 29.59 lakh passengers the previous December (2023), generating a revenue of Rs 9.25 crore.
Water metro services, particularly on the High Court-Fort Kochi route, have also seen a steady surge in passengers during December over the past two years. This is in part driven by the holiday season and major cultural events like the Kochi-Biennale in the city.
According to recent data, on average, around 10,000 passengers utilise the water metro daily.