19 August 2013
NEW DELHI: Months after the Delhi Metro started operating eight-coach trains on the Jahangirpuri-HUDA City Centre corridor, commuters travelling on the Dwarka Sector 21-Noida/Vaishali line, too, can travel in comfort.
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation is pressing the first eight-coach train into service on the crowded Blue line, as the Dwarka Sector 21 to Noida City Centre/Vaishali route is known, on Monday. Delhi Metro introduced the eight-coach trains on the Yellow line in December last year.
The Blue line is the corridor with the highest ridership, numbering more than 9 lakh people every day. Till now, it was being serviced by four- and six-coach trains as the Delhi Metro was still converting four-coach trains into six-coach ones. "This eight-coach train will be introduced from Dwarka Metro station at 8am on Monday and will go towards Noida City Centre," DMRC spokesperson Anuj Dayal said. It will be the first of a total of 31 eight-coach trains which will be introduced on line 3/4 (Dwarka Sector 21 to Noida City Centre/Vaishali) in a phased manner, Dayal said.
That's not all. Delhi Metro is planning to run more trains on August 19 and 20 for Raksha Bandhan, said Dayal. "In view of high ridership observed on the eve of Raksha Bandhan and on the day itself over the past few years, we have decided to run around 300 extra train trips each on August 19 and 20," he said. Additional security personnel will also be deployed to cater to the rush of commuters expected on these two days. "Trains will run at peak hour frequency from 8am to 8.30pm on August 19 and 20 and trains which are normally withdrawn from lines during off-peak hours (11.30am to 4.30pm) will be kept in service to perform around 300 extra trips, making a total of about 2,900 trips on that day," Dayal said.
DMRC will also deploy additional security guards and customer facilitation agents (CFA) at major stations to help and guide commuters on these two days. The prominent stations to have extra CFA deployment are Dilshad Garden, Shahdara, Welcome, Seelampur, Shastri Park, Pitampura, Rohini East, Rohini West, Rithala, Jahangir Puri, Adarsh Nagar, GTB Nagar, Yamuna Bank, Uttam Nagar East, Nawada, Noida City Centre, Botanical Garden, Noida Sec-18, MG Road, HUDA City Centre, Sarita Vihar, Lajpat Nagar, Badarpur, Peeragarhi, Nangloi and Mundka. "Extra personnel will be deployed to handle the increased load on the ticketing system and the Metro ticketing staff in 75 stations will do 123 additional shifts," the official said.
In 2012, over 22 lakh passengers travelled on the day before Rakhi by Delhi Metro whereas close to 20 lakh travelled on Rakhi. At present, the Delhi Metro ridership has already increased substantially. Delhi Metro carried over 25 lakh passengers for the first time on August 8.
Published by: The Times Of India