Thaindian News

New Delhi, Aug 13 (IANS) Delhi Metro carried over 20 lakh passengers and set a new record in a single day’s ridership Saturday when the Raksha Bandhan festival was celebrated, an official said.

Metro trains carried 2,066,925 passengers, surpassing the previous record of 1,830,944 for a single day set Aug 2, the Delhi Metro official said.

“It was also the first time the Delhi Metro carried over 20 lakh passengers on a single day. The ridership witnessed a steep increase since Saturday morning. Usually the Metro witnesses a huge rush on Raksha Bandhan,” the official said.

The average daily ridership of Delhi Metro has been increasing by a lakh every month. It was 14 lakh in May and jumped 18 lakh in August.

“Managing the crowd was very difficult today (Saturday). The number of footfalls was overwhelming; at times we were not able to stop men entering the reserved ladies’ coaches,” said a security guard stationed at Rajiv Chowk Metro station.

“The Metro ridership saw a spike since Saturday morning. Some trains had to be stopped for a few extra minutes at stations because of the huge crowds at the stations,” the guard added.

Normally, 15 trains are withdrawn from the lines during non-peak hours — 12.30 p.m. to 4.30 p.m. But in view of the festival rush, these trains are kept in service to provide 200 extra trips Saturday, said an official.

The Delhi Metro normally witnesses a huge rush on Raksha Bandhan — about one lakh extra commuters travel every year on the festival day.

In 2010, 12.02 lakh passengers travelled on the day of the festival.

Besides additional train trips, extra manpower was deployed at customer facilitation and ticket counters, the official said.

The usually overcrowded Noida line (Dwarka Sector 9 to Noida City Centre/Yamuna Bank to Anand Vihar) recorded the maximum ridership of 798,498 followed by the Gurgaon line (Jahangirpuri to HUDA City Centre, Gurgaon) at about 714,384 commuters.