Deserted platforms and sparse ridership as Metro kicks-off

New Delhi: After more than five months since metro services in the capital were halted in the wake of the onset of Covid-19, the rapid transit system has made a comeback with the Yellow Line being the first to open its doors to commuters post-lockdown.

However, footfall across stations on the first day of reopening was rather tepid with the DMRC saying that about 15,500 people used the metro on Monday. On a regular day, the Delhi Metro is used by about 26 lakh commuters. While stations were heavily armed with CISF, Delhi Police and Metro officials, who were manning the limited entry and exit points, compartments were largely running on half of their capacity.

At the Rajiv Chowk Station, at around 8 am, close to 15 CISF personnel were deployed both inside and outside the premises with adequate signage and audio-visual announcements across the platform to ensure social distancing. At this station, entry was allowed only from gate 7, and exit only from gate 6.

In the metro itself, passengers were only allowed to sit in alternate seats and large yellow stickers were placed at every other bench asking passengers to maintain distance. The passengers themselves also seemed quite mindful of the same. While the usually busy hub bore a deserted look, the Rajiv Chowk-Jahangirpuri route still saw some traffic. DMRC officials dotted the platform screen doors in order to prevent overcrowding.

Meanwhile, the few passengers who did board the trains on Monday were all praises for the smooth journey. Monu Pawar, while deboarding at Rajiv Chowk station, said, "During the lockdown, I had to travel in buses which were infrequent and ended up increasing my travel time". He said the sanitation measures inside the trains were up to his expectations.

Surmesh, a resident of Savitri Nagar near Hauz Khas, was travelling to his workplace near Vishwavidyalaya. He said that while today he was taking a test ride to check the way the DMRC had prepared to reopen, he had been quite keen on the metro services resuming, and was quite satisfied with the safety methods in place.

Municipal workers Omvati and Krishna travel daily from their homes in Shahdara to their office near Jahangirpuri. "When the metro stopped we faced a lot of difficulties. We had to rely on buses to commute because we could not stop coming to work", they said.

On the other hand, traders in Delhi welcomed the resumption of services and hoped this would help boost their businesses and the economy.

Meanwhile, residents in Noida and Gurugram also rejoiced in equal measure as metro services resumed despite officials in both cities recording low ridership numbers. In Noida, a senior metro official said a total of around 600 people had used the Aqua Line of the Noida Metro on Monday.

Ritu Maheshwari, Managing Director, NMRC, said that all the new procedures that have to be followed by the passengers for travelling in the Aqua Line were kept on priority.

In Gurugram, the bulk of commuters of the first day of resumption comprised of service professionals, students, small-time traders and health workers. Most commuters told Millennium Post that they were looking forward to the expense that they can save once the metro reopens fully. Meanwhile, the Metro services will resume between Delhi and Ghaziabad on Thursday after a gap of over five

months.