RailEnquiry

NEW DELHI: The Metro, which has emerged as the spine of public transport in the city because of its reliability and assurance of a comfortable journey, is getting quite crowded. On Monday, it was used by 22.89 lakh commuters, the highest ridership that the decade-old system has seen till date.Interestingly, the ridership was 21.50 lakh last Monday, about a lakh less than usual because of rain and dire predictions of a deluge, point out officials. By Friday, it had picked up and reached 22.6 lakh, boosted by the Surajkund Mela rush which seems to have got sustained over the weekend and helped DMRC set a record.On February 4, the ridership on the Yellow Line (Jehangirpuri-HUDA City Centre) was 7.6 lakh and on the Blue Line (Dwarka-Noida/Vaishali) 8.36 lakh. The numbers went up to 8.1 lakh and 8.8 lakh, respectively, on February 11. The other lines, too, are attracting more and more commuters, especially on special occasions and events. However, inclement weather may cause a dip because reaching a Metro station or leaving it for one's destination still remains a problem.The spike in numbers may be good news for the city, which in the absence of enough buses and expensive autos and taxis, relies mostly on private vehicles. It indicates a shift, perhaps partly because of increasing congestion on the roads.

It, however, also underlines the dangers. Can Metro take the pressure that's building up suddenly without adding more coaches and putting some important infrastructure in place? With only 120-odd feeder buses plying on 15 routes, the last-mile connectivity continues to be a problem for commuters.

While the numbers are rising, DMRC is yet to introduce eight-coach trains on its Blue Line, which carries the maximum number of riders. DMRC officials say their priority is to introduce more eight-coach trains on the Yellow Line (Jehangirpuri-HUDA City Centre) before they are introduced on the Blue Line - the Dwarka-Noida/Vaishali corridor.

The Yellow Line runs around five eight-coach trains at present. The Blue Line will start getting eight-coach trains later this year. It's, however, the lack of enough feeder buses that puts commuters to great discomfort. Though there are 145 stations in the Delhi Metro network, which covers 190km, the feeder buses reach only a very small area, managing to cover only 119km. Commuters complain of erratic service besides the complete absence near most crowded stations. The numbers are telling - from November 2007, when the service was introduced, to December 2012, only 120 buses have been inducted, the last one being in 2009.

Recently, DMRC announced it was introducing 300 feeder buses. However, the project has been languishing for some time now. Officials say that though a vendor was selected, with the letter of acceptance being awarded in July 2012, buses will be available only from July this year.

The vendor will then start operations in phases within the next three months. Also, the very popularity of Metro could become its bane if Delhi government doesn't get serious about augmenting its bus fleet and reining in the auto-rickshaws that are a law unto themselves.