Hingna Rd Metro to run from today, fares slashed by 50%

Nagpur: With the state urban development department (UDD) issuing the standard operating procedure (SOP) for Metros, MahaMetro has decided to start the Metro on the Sitabuldi-Lokmanya Nagar stretch from Friday. In order to compete with shared autorickshaws, the fares have been slashed by 50%. The Sitabuldi-Khapri Metro will start plying from Sunday.
Addressing a press conference on Thursday, Sudhakar Urade, general manager (O&M), said that the frequency of trains in both directions would be 15 minutes. “Metro will ply between 8am and 8pm,” he added.
Urade further said that in order to attract commuters towards Metro, MahaMetro had decided to slash fares. “Earlier the ticket for distances up to 6 kilometre was Rs10. Now it will be only Rs5. Before lockdown a ticket for distances between 6km and 12km used to cost Rs20. This has now been reduced to Rs10. The ticket for distances above 12km will now cost Rs20 instead of Rs30,” he added.
The Metro official further said that only 118 passengers would be allowed per train. “Ninety-eight passengers can sit while 20 can stand. There has to be a gap between two passengers. Our staffers will ensure this,” he added.
According to Urade, more passengers would be allowed per train when government revises its guidelines. “Our aim is that maximum number of Nagpurians use this mode of transport,” he said.
There are however, a number of problems for Metro users which have not been resolved. Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) is yet to start its city bus service. Due to lack of city buses, feeder services will not be available for Metro. Even though several organizations have demanded resumption of city buses, NMC top officials are yet to take a decision in this regard.
E-scooters are yet to get permission from the regional transport office (RTO) and as a result only e-cycles will be available at Metro stations. Nagpurians are not in the habit of riding bicycles and thus this is a major problem.
Parking space is not available or limited at many stations, which will deter citizens from using the Metro.
MahaMetro managing director Brijesh Dixit has however, decided to launch ‘Mission One Lakh’ in the coming days when the government permits full ridership of Metros. He wants one lakh people to use the Metro daily. MahaMetro is drawing up plans to achieve this objective. This would however, take time.
In fact, the Nagpur Metro project is only half complete. The Sitabuldi-Prajapati Nagar (Reach IV) and Sitabuldi-Automotive Square (Reach II) stretches are still under construction. They will not be ready before June 2021. Ridership is bound to increase when these stretches become operational.