New Delhi: In a move that may significantly reduce crowding in trains, the Metro has approached the government making a case for procurement of 916 coaches to tackle the 17.5% annual growth in ridership recorded over the past five years.
Says the detailed project report by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, “There is a persistent demand from all quarters, including the Supreme Court, that DMRC shall endeavour to run trains with best possible frequency to meet the needs of the city’s public transport.”
Given that Delhi Metro runs 1,396 coaches in its system, another 916 would mean a 65% increase in coaches.
In terms of trains, the proposal has sought 102 new ones to add to the existing network of 227. It cites “extreme overcrowding” for the need to add to the existing rolling stock, or coaches. According to the Delhi Metro, the augmentation is planned to be taken up from April 2017 to March 2021, after the approvals from the Delhi government and the Centre. The procurement is expected to cost Rs 13,284 crore, at 2016 prices.
At present, Delhi Metro operates on six corridors. Two more corridors will be added in phase III, for which the Delhi Metro has already placed an order of 486 coaches. However, the increasing ridership on the network has meant that the number of trains in the system is not enough to cater to the crowds.
In the past five years, 17.5% additional commuters have been added to the ridership, each year.At present, the daily average ridership of the network is around 28 lakh, though it recently touched 32 lakh on a hectic day .
The more populated corridors are line 34 (Dwarka sector 21 to NoidaVaishali) and line 2 (Sa maypur Badli to HUDA City Centre).
The average ridership is 10,75,586 on line 34 and 10,07,539 on line 2. The other lines clock between 40,018 for the Airport Express line to 3,74,516 for line 1, which is the Rithala to Dilshad Garden line.
