The Aam Aadmi Party government and public transport experts were not in favour of 100% metro fare hike brought about last year.
This year Delhi Metro has accounted for a loss of almost up to five lakh commuters in terms of daily riders in comparison to last year.
People have switched from public to private transport due to a hike in the fare around 8 months back.
The capital’s ‘lifeline’ is showing no signs of recovery as per a report in The Indian Express. Even during the peak summer months of March, April and May, many commuters chose to avoid the metro and take their own transportation. In fact, there was a dip of 17 percent in riders as compared to 2017 as per the data obtained through an RTI application.
The ridership was expected to touch the mark of 30 lakh by now as estimated by the Delhi Metro, which is also part of Delhi government’s outcome budget.
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Kailash Gahlot, Transport Minister, Delhi is holding the Centre responsible for the decline in ridership. He told the paper: “At a time when some cities around the world are making public transport totally free, DMRC can still make amends and reduce its fares to gain ridership.”
The Aam Aadmi Party government and public transport experts were not in favour of 100% metro fare hike brought about last year. The hike was implemented by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on the Centre’s insistence.
On a daily basis, Delhi Metro witnessed a total of around 22 lakh commuters travelling on its five corridors -Yellow, Blue, Red, Green and Violet in the months of March and April during this year. In May this year, the number was approximately 22.5 lakh, while last year in the months of March, April and May, the number of metro commuters was close to 27 lakh every month.