New Metro line boosts ridership, revenues

NEW DELHI: Cash registers are ringing for Delhi Metro. Thanks to the new Barakhamba-Dwarka line, Metro’s already operational two lines have seen a sharp increase in ridership and revenue since December 31.Till December 30, Metro’s Line 1 Shahdara-Rithala and Line 2 DU-Central Secretariat were raking in Rs 26 to 28 lakh every day. In fact, December 30 was a particularly good day and the total earning from the two lines was Rs 28,25,849.

Just as DMRC opened its new Line 3 on December 31, the revenue increased 27.79% overnight from the two lines to Rs 36,11,026. This is not all. On January 2, the revenue from the two lines soared to Rs 41, 53,361 — a 46.98% increase in just three days.

The ridership of the two lines reflects a similar upward trend. On December 30, the ridership of the two lines put together was 2,70,525. Addition of the third line to the network next day saw a 9.51% increase in ridership of Lines 1 and 2 to 2,96,248.

This further increased to 2,98,407 on Monday, which is a 10.31% increase. This increase, however, has not kept pace with the revenue increase. DMRC chief public relations officer Anuj Dayal said: “The revenue and ridership have increased on the lines tremendously.This is because now the network provides better connectivity. The ridership increase is less than the revenue increase. This clearly reflects that the people seem to be travelling a longer distance on the system.”

To put it simply, now it is possible to travel from Rithala to Dwarka, so far a near-impossible journey, in just Rs 22 and in less than an hour. So far, DMRC’s new Line 3, which is the longest line on the Metro map, has been the top grosser.

On Monday, DMRC scored a record revenue of Rs 69,76,604 from all three lines. Of this, 40.47% of revenue came from the new line, followed by 32.28% from Line 1 Shahdara-Rithala.