4 months after Metro reopens, ridership soars, flying squads thinning and social distancing disappearing

New Delhi: Four months after the Delhi Metro threw its doors open to commuters after the Covid-induced hiatus, ridership across all corridors of the network has shot up to around 16 lakh per day but with commuters often found violating pandemic protocols and Covid-19 flying squads thinning out, the rise in challas for these violations has not seen a proportional increase, data maintained by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation till December 31 showed.

The average passenger journeys per day in the month of November was roughly half of what it was in December, around 13 to 14 lakh, the data further showed. Meanwhile, the average line utilization in the month of September, right after it's reopening, numbered upto around 6 lakh while in October, it rose to approximately 12 lakh. Line utilization is defined as the number of journeys completed from origin to destination across lines.

Fines or challans issued to persons for violation of various COVID-19 protocols, such as not wearing a mask or breaching social distancing rules, were upto 16,347, up from around 10,825 issued till October 31.

Such challans are usually issued by flying squads, comprising both Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and Metro personnel, which have been deployed by DMRC in order to ensure compliance of the safety protocols and issue fines under Section 59 of the Delhi Metro Railways (Operation & Maintenance) Act.

However, after Millennium Post's spot check across key Metro stations on evening rush hours, it was revealed that unlike in September, when Metro personnel were deployed across all stations to handle crowds and check COVID-19 violations on regular instances, no officials were on duty even at Rajiv Chowk metro station, arguably the busiest station.

Rajiv Chowk metro station also witnesses regular serpentine queues outside it's premises which extends upto the Connaught Place market, on rush hours. Here, out of a total of eight gates, three have been thrown open to commuters for now.

Similarly, at important interchange stations like Mandi House and Central Secretariat, no such personnel were seen deployed as part of flying squads. At Central Secretariat station, out of a total of five gates, only one has been opened for passengers.

Meanwhile, Millennium Post also spotted several instances of commuters breaching social distancing guidelines inside trains by sitting on demarcated seats prohibiting passengers from doing the same, especially during the peak evening hours.

A senior DMRC official told this newspaper that such flying squads are now being deployed in response to specific intelligence, mostly at crucial metro stations. "It's practically impossible to deploy these many personnel at all the metro stations and they mostly carry out inspections when they get a specific input," he said, adding, "the point is to make the passengers aware about the protocols and not use it as a tool of harassment".

"DMRC has deployed flying squad teams across all the Lines to randomly check inside trains for any kind of violations and counsel people to refrain from doing so for their own and everyone's safety," Anuj Dayal, Executive Director (Corporate Communications) DMRC, said, adding that regular announcements inside trains and station premises are being made to create mass awareness. Also, the sale of smart cards too has skyrocketed from 11,000 in September to 21,500 per day in December, the DMRC said.