Noida: Aqua Line records highest ridership since resuming services after lockdown

Noida: The Aqua Line of Noida Metro Rail Corporation (NMRC) on Monday recorded a ridership of 9,822, the highest since it resumed services on September 7 after the lockdown. On September 7, the Noida Metro’s ridership was only 600 when services were available in the morning (7am to 11am) and evening (5pm to 9pm) hours at an interval of 15 minutes. The Aqua Line started its full fledged operations running trains throughout the day from September 12 when 2,148 passengers used the services.

Thus the ridership has increased by more than 4.5 times in three months of resuming services, NMRC officials said. However, the post-lockdown ridership is significantly low if it is compared to that of pre-lockdown period, the officials said. Before the lockdown, on an average around 18,000 riders would use the Noida Metro services daily. For example, the Aqua Line had recorded a ridership of 19,064 and 17,720 on March 16 and 17, respectively. Sandhya Sharma, deputy general manager of NMRC, said that the Aqua Line has been recording steady rise in ridership since resuming its operations after the lockdown. “On September 12, the Aqua Line had recorded a ridership of 2,148 and since then the ridership has seen a steady rise,” she said.

Sharma said that the rise in the ridership this month could be due to winter season and farmers’ protest. “It is believed that motorcycle users prefer to use metro during winter. We also feel that due to farmers’ protest, people commuting from Noida, Greater Noida to East Delhi and vice versa are using metro to evade traffic jam,” she said. Rohan Kumar, a commuter from Greater Noida, said that he uses metro for commuting to Mayur Vihar in Delhi. “Farmers’ protests have affected the traffic on roads. Metro facilitates a hassle-free commuting,” said Rohan, a law student.

Meanwhile, NMRC has also planned to restart its citizen friendly initiatives. Sharma said that NMRC had planned to rent out Aqua Line metro’s coaches for birthday celebrations and pre-wedding shoots in February this year, but due to Coronavirus outbreak and the lockdown, the initiative could not take off. “We have again started seeking applications from interested candidates to book the metro coaches for such celebrations. They will have to follow the social distancing norms and wear masks,” she said. “The initiative gives residents a unique destination for photo shoot. It also generates non-fare revenue through short term licensing of NMRC’s coach/ train for sustainable development,” Sharma said.

As per the policy, an undecorated coach in a regular running metro train for an event would cost Rs 8,000 while an undecorated coach in static metro train would cost Rs 5,000. A decorated coach in a regular running metro train for an event would cost Rs 10,000 and a decorated coach in static metro train would cost Rs 7,000.