6-coach Metro trains coming to ease over-crowding

NEW DELHI: Peeved at over-crowding on Delhi Metro?

Relax! Commuters can look forward to having a hassle-free travel in the coming months as the Delhi Metro plans to introduce at least one six coach train on the Noida-Anand Vihar line every week from next month.

By January-end, the Line 3 (Dwarka Sec-21 to Noida City Centre/Anand Vihar) will have eight six-coach trains, including the two which have already been inducted.

Of these, four will ply between Dwarka to Noida City Centre and the remaining from Dwarka to Anand Vihar.

From February, another over-crowded corridor that connects Jehangirpuri with HUDA City Centre in Gurgaon will also have six-coach trains.

Delhi Metro is waiting for over 150 cars from German train maker Bombardier which will be added to the existing four-coach trains and put into service after exhaustive tests and trials.

Delhi Metro officials feel the introduction of six-coach trains on these two lines will considerably ease the rush and allow passengers to have a much more comfortable ride.

"The two lines alone account for over 12 lakh ridership everyday. So, certainly during the rush hours the trains are crowded. The six-coach trains will ease the rush," a senior official said.

Delhi Metro chief E Sreedharan said on Friday that the six-coach trains will be put on Line 2 and 3. A six-coach train can accomodate an additional 600 people as against the 1,200 figure of a four-coach train.

A senior official said that a four-coach train has to be withdrawn from service to make it a six-coach one. "Once two coaches are coupled to the existing four-coach, trials and tests have to be conducted before they are put on tracks for passenger service," he said.

By the end of next year, Line 2 and Line 3 will have 54 and 38 six-coach trains.

With the overall ridership crossing 16 lakh last month, over-crowding on Metro trains has become a major problem, especially during the rush hours and Metro has been toying with the idea of introducing six-coach trains in its fleet to reduce over-crowding.

While the capacity of the four-coach train is 1200 to 1500, a six-coach train can accommodate 1800 to 2100 passengers per trip.