NEW DELHI: The substantial hike in prices of diesel and petrol seem to have forced the commuters to leave their personal vehicles at home and commute through public transport, especially the Delhi Metro. The ridership that saw a decline after Delhi Metro had increased its fares last year twice— in May and then October — is now once again witnessing an increase of about 12 lakh commuters per week, said DMRC sources.
The reported increase in Metro riders remains during weekdays and on a daily basis, at least 2 lakh additional people (compared to previous months) are travelling through the Delhi Metro. This increase in commuters has taken up Delhi Metro's daily ridership to 30 lakh per day in September from 28 lakh in August.
The upward trend started in August when after a gap of more than a year, Delhi Metro's daily ridership had again touched 28 lakh and DMRC has been hoping that a study it would commission would help boost this further.
"Our current ridership has been around 28 lakh on almost all weekdays for the last 20 days. We have interacted with our passengers and found that the journey has become more efficient now because of a large number of interchange stations available. The experience of passengers has improved," DMRC's managing director Mangu Singh had said last month.
Apart from hike in diesel and petrol prices, the increase in ridership, however, has also coincided with the opening of new lines in recent months. In 2018, DMRC added 57 km of new corridors, which included sections of Magenta Line (Botanical Garden-Janakpuri West) and Pink Line (Majlis Park-Shiv Vihar).
It may be mentioned that the prices of petrol and diesel continued to increase on Tuesday, with a litre of petrol of costing Rs 82.86 in Delhi, while a litre of diesel was priced at Rs 74.12 in national Capital. The prices of petrol and diesel have continued to rise due to the depreciation in the rupee's value and a rise in international oil rates.