Delhi Metro to run more trips to meet extra rush on Raksha Bandhan

A press release from DMRC said trains would be run at peak-hour frequency from 8 am to 8.30 pm on Tuesday and 21 trains, which are normally withdrawn from lines during off-peak hours (12.30 pm to 4.30 pm), will be kept in service performing 187 extra trips, making a total of 2484 trips on that day.

It said DMRC would also deploy more Customer Facilitation Agents to help and guide commuters on that day, with 52 more shifts of eight hours each having been arranged for this purpose. The extra manpower will be deployed at 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, Peeragarhi, Nangloi and Mundka stations.

In addition, extra personnel will be deployed to handle the increased load on the ticketing system and the Metro ticketing staff on 49 stations will do additional shifts of a total of 624 hours. The extra manpower will be deployed mainly at Dilshad Garden, Shahdara, Welcome, Rohini West, Tilak Nagar, Nawada, Uttam Nagar East, Yamuna Bank, Noida City Centre, Botanical Garden, Noida Sec-18, Peeragarhi, Nangloi and Mundka.

According to the release, the Delhi Metro normally witnesses greater rush of commuters on Raksha Bandhan, with about one lakh extra people having travelled on that day every year.

In 2009, 10.08 lakh passengers traveled on Rakhi by the Metro, which was the highest ever ridership at that time. Since then, the Delhi Metro ridership has already increased substantially to an average of 11, 05,949 passengers per day last month, which is the maximum ridership so far in any month.

Metro ridership is expected to rise to 2 million commuters on week days once the entire network of 190 km becomes operational by September 2010 before the October 3-14 Commonwealth Games.

NNN