KOCHI: The Kochi Metro’s ridership touched a new record on monthly ridership in December, boosting expectations of a rising patronage for the metro rail in the New Year.
In December, the metro rail saw the ridership touching 32,35,027 (32.35 lakh) commuters with the monthly revenue reaching a new record of Rs 10.15 crore. In December 2023, the figure was 29,59,685 (29.59 lakh) commuters and the revenue was Rs 9.25 crore.
On December 31 to the dawn of New Year, the ridership touched 1.3 lakh. The KMRL, which has been clocking more than 1 lakh commuters regularly since July, has been consistently making profits for the past two years. The profit was Rs 5.35 crore in 2023 fiscal, which increased to Rs 22.94 crore in 2024.
“KMRL is looking forward to hitting 1.5 daily passengers in 2025. We were able to achieve the target of 1 lakh set in the previous year with great teamwork,” said KMRL managing director Loknath Behera. “Unification of rates, subsidy for students, publicity through social media, punctual services, cleanliness, and great cooperation from employees and commuters all contributed to the success,” he added.
Kochi Metro also holds the credit of being the nation’s first metro service with the most number of digital ticketing services. KMRL is planning to completely digitalise the ticketing services soon.
About 35 lakh commuters have used Kochi Water Metro services so far. Due to the huge success of the project, central government has sought help from KMRL for introducing services in 18 cities, including Ahmedabad, Sabarmati, Surat, Mangaluru, Goa, Guwahati, Ayodhya, Kollam, Kolkata, Patna, Prayagraj, Srinagar, Varanasi, Mumbai, Vasai, Lakshadweep, and Andamans.
“The centre had recently approved the preparation of detailed project report (DPR) for Metro Phase 3 extensions to Angamaly. Foreign loans that were expected to be disbursed by March will be delayed until May,” Behera said.