With ridership of Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar Metro-1 —the city's only operational metro route— increasing by the day, BJP MP Kirit Somaiya has written to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who also heads Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), to increase the number of coaches from four to six.
Metro-1 is operated by Reliance Infrastructure-led Mumbai Metro One Private Limited (MMOPL) and in 2018, the average weekly ridership of Metro-1 has also touched 4 lakh passengers daily. It easily carries more than 3.40 lakh passengers daily on weekdays; however, the ridership is lesser during weekends.
DNA had reported in June 2018, when the metro route completed four years, as to how with increasing ridership, commuters have been demanding to increase the number of coaches. The year 2017-18 witnessed a growth of 13 per cent in ridership for the entire Metro-1 corridor when compared to same period in previous year's ridership.
Somaiya in a letter to MMRDA said, there is a need to convert four car rake into six car rake, which will help to increase passenger carrying capacity from 1,178 to 1,792 passengers per train citing it's overcrowded and needs more trains or extra coaches.
Meanwhile, MMOPL has maintained that it sees scope for increasing number of trips during the day adding that it keeps close tab on increasing ridership and would initiate necessary actions for procuring new coaches or trains as soon as the need arises. Currently, on a typical week day, Metro-1 carries out 378 trips.
The MMRDA that also has stakes in Metro-1 said it will check on feasibility of adding more coaches. Dilip Kawathkar, spokesperson of MMRDA said, "We will check for feasibility in order to add more number of coaches, and an appropriate decision will be taken, accordingly."
