Nearly thousand people benefited from a dozen free health checkup camps held at two of the Jaipur metro stations over past one month. In consideration of the continued response, the Jaipur Metro Rail Corporation (JMRC) has decided to continue offering space for free medical camps at no cost. The corporation has also extended its another scheme for providing space for cultural activities without any charge.
The public welfare scheme comes to serve a double purpose for the Jaipur metro struggling to improve upon its ridership numbers. “The initiative has received positive impact and we decided to continue it as long as our other targets are achieved,” says a JMRC officer.
The ‘other’ target include improving the footfall at the Jaipur metro station, thus enabling the metro to lease commercial spaces at desirable rent. These stations remain fairly vacant as only around 24,000 passenger trips get registered at metro on usual days. The low turnout has kept investors reluctant to meet rent expectations of metro. The metro thus has not only been losing the fare revenue, commercial spaces at the stations stood as non performing assets. Putting them on free temporary lease for public events, the JMRC attempts to use these assets for branding among citizens.
“Its like getting more people introduced to the metro network, over the time they will be more comfortable using a metro,” an official expresses optimism on the JMRC initiative.
As only the part A of Jaipur metro’s phase 1 remain operational, the mega project for now has a limited feasibility for commuters. The metro expects passenger numbers to improve with completion of the under development part B of the phase. It will, however, only be after the development of phase 2 that the ambitious project will reach near its expected targets. The project report of the phase 2 remains under review and the JMRC attempts to improve on its revenue generation to assure feasibility of the ambitious project.
In the direction the JMRC has intensified its efforts over the past couple of months and taken steps as dropping peak hour charges and increasing frequency of trains. The corporation has also made special attention to improve on the last mile connectivity by associating E-rickshaw and other feeder services at its various stations.
Ride To Market
- To offer more services to the people in the city, the Jaipur Metro has made arrangements for those looking to shop at the Tibetian market. An annual winter wear trade fair, the market draws large number of people and is being held at the VT Road in Mansarovar this year. The metro has provision to provide E-rickshaw services between the market venue and Mansarovar metro station.
- According to metro officials, the passengers to arrive at Jaipur metro station will be able to ride the feeder service to the market venue at fixed rent of Rs 5. The metro expects a considerable people to use its services to avoid parking and traffic issues.
