Odd-even rule: Delhi Metro sees hike in ridership

NEW DELHI: Delhi Metro seems to be emerging as the top choice for NCR commuters. Over the past week of the odd-even scheme, stations in the NCR saw a hike in the ridership, some by as much as 52%.

"The percentage increase in the ridership from these stations is around 9.3%," said a Delhi Metro spokesman. Noida Sector 18 station saw a rise of 52.85%.

Botanical Garden, located in Uttar Pradesh, saw a hike of 31.70%, while the stations on the newly opened Badarpur to Faridabad corridor witnessed an average increase of 10 to 15%.

The ridership from the NCR stations has been consistently high in the past week. From 4.4 lakh passengers on January 4 to somewhere between 3.9 and 4.1 lakh since then, Delhi Metro has been ferrying more passengers since the odd-even scheme started.

The stations, 22 in total, are located in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. However, of these, three have also seen a decline. These are Vaishali, Kaushambhi and Escorts Mujesar.

The drop in the ridership in these stations is six to 15%, with Kaushambhi station witnessing a decrease of 15.79%.

The drop is interesting considering both Vaishali and Kaushambhi stations witnessed a healthy ridership on regular days. For instance, the ridership on December 30-a working day-at Vaishali was 45,241, whereas it was only 35,994 on January 5, another working day.

Delhi Metro Rail Corporation ( DMRC) has been running 70 extra trips-30 on the Airport Express line-for the duration of the odd-even scheme since January 1.