Cab fares soar as Diwali rush crowds metro

Gurgaon: App-based cab aggregators had a field day in Gurgaon on Tuesday, a day before Diwali, as almost all the metro stations in the city witnessed heavy festive rush.
Massive queues were witnessed at Huda City Centre metro station, particularly during evening rush hours. Commuters were forced to stand in queue for almost an hour just to enter the station.

Some commuters who grew impatient decided to take a cab instead, but ended up paying more than double the usual fare. “When I reached the Huda City Centre metro station, I was shocked to see the long queue, spilling on to the road outside. I decided to go to Sikanderpur instead, just to realise that the situation was no better there,” said Shelly Gupta, a marketing executive.

“There was no way I could have got on the train without having to wait for over an hour at least and so I decided to book a cab instead. Usually, a trip to Connaught Place would cost me around Rs 300, but it cost me Rs 700. I had no option but to shell out this amount,” she added.

Others like Subhangi Jha said that the queue was almost a kilometre-long. “The queue which started from the entry gate stretched way beyond the auto stand. I have never seen so much crowd at a metro station,” she said.

Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) authorities acknowledged that the crowd was huge, but claimed that it was manageable.

The Delhi-Gurgaon expressway, which witnessed major traffic jams in the past few days, was no better on Tuesday. As a number of offices closed down after lunch, snarls started before 4pm and lasted till 7.30pm.