Delhi Metro has lost over 3 lakh riders a day after 10 Oct fare hike

In an ominous sign for the financial viability of the proposed Bullet Train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, it has emerged that Delhi Metro lost over three lakh commuters a day after a steep fare hike came into effect on 10 October.

The reply to a Right to Information (RTI) query shows the metro's daily average ridership came down to 24.2 lakh in October from 27.4 lakh in September, a fall of around 11 per cent.

The Blue Line – a 50-km corridor connecting Dwarka and Noida, considered the Metro's busiest - lost over 30 lakh commuters in just 20 days of October, according to data released by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) in response to the query by a PTI correspondent.

The metro has a 218-km network across Delhi National Capital Region.

The fall in the number of passengers was over 19 lakh on the Yellow Line, another busy corridor which connects Gurgaon to north Delhi's Samaypur Badli, DMRC said.

Ridership on the Violet Line, which connects ITO to Faridabad, plunged by 11.9 lakh in October. The number of riders on the Red Line, from Dilshad Garden to Rithala, came down by 7.5 lakh.

Ridership has come down several notches below the numbers observed in recent years, reversing a trend of rise on the back of the launch of newer sections.

In fact, in October 2016, the metro's daily average ridership was a similar 27.2 lakh, despite a comparatively shorter operational route.

Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has blamed the DMRC's fare for an increase in congestion on Delhi's roads. In a tweet, he wrote, ''That many passengers have taken to other means of tpt, thus increasing pollution n congestion on roads. Metro fare hike has not benefitted anyone.''

The DMRC fare hike effective from 10 October has led to a rise of around Rs10 for nearly every distance slab. This came barely five months of another hike of up to 100 per cent.

After the first phase of the hike in May, the metro lost nearly 1.5 lakh passengers per day in June.

The DMRC and Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri defended the fare hike, saying it was essential to maintain Metro's financial and operational health.

He rejected Kejriwal's opposition, saying the Centre was in no position to disregard the recommendations of a Fare Fixation Committee which had drawn up the revised fare list.

The revised fare structure is: up to 2 km - Rs10, 2 to 5 km - Rs20, 5 to 12 km - Rs30, 12 to 21 km - Rs40, 21 to 32 km - Rs50 and beyond 32 km - Rs60.