NOIDA (Metro Rail News): From February 1, one extra station — Sector 148 — has been added to the number of halts for rapid trains on the Aqua Line, according to officials. Only four stations remain on the line where fast trains will not stop due to low footfall, out of a total of twenty-one.
Sectors 144, 145, 146, and 147 are the stations in question. In February of last year, the Noida Metro Rail Corporation (NMRC) inaugurated fast trains on the Aqua Line to minimise commuter travel time. During peak hours, the fast trains were supposed to skip 10 of the 21 stations.
The metro line was shut down for approximately 40 days in May due to the Covid-induced lockout. When trains resumed service on June 9, 2021, the fast trains continued to skip the 10 stations. However, due to public demand and a concurrent drop in the number of Covid cases, the Noida Metro began allowing rapid trains to pause at the Sector 81 station on August 2.
On August 31, four more stations — sectors 50, 101, 83, and 143 — were added to the list. The Noida Metro evaluated station footfall on January 28 and decided to allow a pause at Sector 148 starting February 1. “The fast trains will now halt at the station from February 1 due to popular public demand and rising development near the Sector-148 station,” said Ritu Maheshwari, managing director of NMRC.
According to a spokesperson for NMRC “With this, now only four stations remain which the fast trains will continue to skip.” On weekdays, fast trains on the NMRC’s Aqua Line run from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. On weekends and gazetted holidays, they do not run. During peak hours, Monday through Friday, the fast train frequency is 10 minutes; during non-peak hours, it is raised to 15 minutes.
