How is Namma Metro faring six months after it started rolling? How useful has it been to the general public? Numbers available with the Metro authorities tell that today, ridership is about half of what it was in the first month, which was marked by initial euphoria of the city dwellers and ‘joyrides’.
In the past six months, Namma Metro earned about Rs6.6 crore as fare. A third of this revenue was earned in the first month, after which ridership steadily declined.
Statistics available with Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) state that Metro’s highest ridership was on October 23, 2011, the Sunday following the service’s inauguration. That day, 85,004 people took a ride on the Metro.
The lowest ridership was less than a fourth of this figure. BLY Chavan, spokesperson of BMRCL, said that current average ridership of the Metro is 24,968. This is about half of the average ridership during the first month of the Metro’s operation. Revenue service report shows that on an average, 41,390 people used the Metro every day from October 20 to November 20.
All is well: BMRCL Comparisons notwithstanding, Chavan said the Metro’s ridership figures are nothing to worry about as this is the number the BMRCL had expected. Even though the Metro has earned only `6.6 crore in these six months, Chavan said this, too, was not a matter of concern.
He said the BMRCL hoped to reach the stage of no profit-no lo loss in a few years. Chavan said the question of breaking even does not even arise now as Metro is a public service.
Chavan said the BMRCL was trying to earn revenue from other means, such as advertisement and property development. He said earning from travel fare was not the only thing the BMRCL was looking at.
About Rs1,500 crore have been spent to make Namma Metro’s Reach 1 operational
