Commuters travelling on Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar Metro-1 will now be able to have a Metro every five minutes, from the earlier train every eight minutes during the non-peak hours. This also means that the per day trips will increase by around 44 trips up from 396 trips daily to 440 trips in one day starting Monday.
The Mumbai Metro One Pvt Ltd (MMOPL), operator of Metro-1 said, “It has taken a commuter friendly decision by announcing 44 additional trips in the off-peak hours. This takes the total tally of Metro services from current 396 to 440 operated on weekdays.”
MMOPL added, “Keeping in mind the ongoing and upcoming festivities, footfalls are likely to go up as more and more commuters along with their families would prefer Metro as a dependable mode of transport.”
Non-peak hours is considered between 11.30 am to 4.30 pm. The 44 additional trips can handle nearly 66,000 commuters. One Metro train has four coaches, and there has been a demand of increasing two more coaches for addressing the issue of crowding.
The per day average ridership of Metro-1 is around 3.55 lakh per day during weekdays. The ridership has also touched 4 lakh and more than 4 lakh during typical weekdays. According to MMOPL, the year 2017-18 saw a growth of 13% in the ridership in comparison to the previous year.
In last one year, MMOPL has increased the per-day trip services from 370 to 382 followed by 386 to now 396 on weekdays. It has done improvements and additions to station layout, ticketing counters, AFC gates, baggage scanning machines and security facilities for increasing footfalls.
The MMOPL in a statement said, “Considering the prevailing festive spirit, this is a commuter-friendly stance of MMOPL to encourage more and more people to use Mumbai Metro and thus improve their travel experience and enable saving their money and time. We are extremely delighted to increase our train services from 396 to 440 trips.”
Ankit Arora, a commuter who uses Metro-1 frequently, said, “Adding more services during non-peak hours makes sense. This as there is a shift in the office timings from the usual 9 am to 5 pm to also come to office late and leaving, accordingly. My shift starts at 2 pm, and this will help to avoid the crowd, and also travel faster to Saki Naka from Andheri.”
HIGHLIGHTS
- Route: Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar
- 3.55 L – Avg daily commuters
- 396 to 440 – Rise in daily trips
- 12 km – Distance
- 66,000 – Additional commuter take
- 44 – Additional trips during non-peak hours
