On Day 2 Scenic Aqua Line enjoys an 81% increase in ridership
On the second day, the Aqua Line of Mahametro’s Reach III, inaugurated a day ago by state chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, witnessed an overwhelming response from the Nagpurians with an 81 percent increase in the ridership between Lokmanyanagar and Sitabuldi.
The Maha metro authorities had made Nagpurians wait 144 days before opening the facility for them because senior politicians were unavailable before it was flagged off by the Thackeray scion. Despite having only a half-day run between 2 pm and 8 pm, on the first day itself Mahametro had collected Rs27,492 with 1,659 people using the city’s most ambitious urban mass transit system, which is expected to be fully operational by the end of this year linking the east-west corridors and also the north-south.
On the second day, Mahametro continued to receive encouraging response from Nagpurians with about 3,000 ridership earning some Rs50,000 revenue.
Mahametro’s first commercial run on the Orange route on March 7, last year, after it was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi via video-link, was also a major draw as Nagpurians were attracted by the facility that was thrown open to them after much media hype and debate about its beginning.
In an official statement, Mahametro reported that on the first day (March 7), when a Rs1.55 lakh revenue was generated on the train’s maiden run from Sitabuldi interchange to Khapri, it had got 11,000 ridership.
Mahametro’s managing director Brijesh Dixit shared the Nagpurians motivating response to Mahametro on January 26 this year, when there were over 21,000 riders on a singe day on the Orange route. “Globally, metro rider ship has a pattern of slowly increasing. Even the Delhi metro witnessed a rise from two lakhs riding in the initial years to 60 lakhs now after it’s the 18-year journey. So, also we expect and see a similar trend here too, “Dixit said. He added that more numbers are attracting people to the metro nowadays, which will certainly increase.
Dixit said all necessary facilities are in place for a smooth trip in the subway, and more will come as the ridership rises. “We have adequate parking spaces at all the metro stations along which there are also e-rickshaw facilities as well as sharing bike to help connect to the last mile,” Dixit said. “At various stations, we’ve made outstanding pickup and drop-off points,” he said. “We also have a Memorandum of Understanding with a company in place for an electric bike and would be launched shortly,” he said.
