The Hindu : Front Page : New Metro line a huge hit with Delhiites

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 03, 2006

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Front Page

New Metro line a huge hit with Delhiites

Staff Reporter

Thousands move over to the fast, air-conditioned trains abandoning chartered buses and cars

NEW DELHI: The chartered buses coming from West Delhi to the rest of the city ran half-full and traffic on the ever-congested Najafgarh Road and Patel Road moved smoothly as thousands of people living along the newly-opened Dwarka-Barakhamba Line III of Delhi Metro chose to change the way they travel on Monday, the first working day since the line was commissioned.

The operators of many chartered buses which used to start from Kakrola Mor in West Delhi and run up to Central Secretariat, getting packed just a few stops away at Mohan Garden, were at a loss for words on Monday morning as most of their regular passengers had deserted them for the much faster and far more comfortable Metro.

The Metro trains on the new line, thrown open to the public on New Year's Eve, ran to capacity as most office-goers, shopkeepers and school children preferred this new mode of travel.

While on Saturday and Sunday the trains had witnessed a huge rush as curiosity about the new route drove New Year revellers on to the system, on Monday it was a more business-like day with schools and offices having opened for their first day of operation in the New Year.

For Vikas B., a resident of Rama Park in Uttam Nagar who all these years had been taking a chartered bus to Krishi Bhavan in New Delhi, it was a day to change the way he travelled. ``Today I zipped to my office in 45 minutes flat and felt very fresh after the journey. More than now, when the weather is cold, I think people will find the air-conditioned Metro refreshingly different in the upcoming hot summer months.''

This view was echoed by Ravi Arora of Ghanta Ghar Hari Nagar who travelled to his Connaught Place office by the Metro on Monday. "I have a very comfortable car, but driving through the rush hour traffic and then finding parking space in Connaught Place is hell. So while I did have to travel by cycle-rickshaw from my home to the Tilak Nagar Metro station, still the journey took me less time. And at the end of it all, I think I would save about Rs 150 per day on just fuel and parking costs.''

The coming of the Metro has also been a godsend for many shopkeepers. "Not only is this a very comfortable and fast mode of transport, it is also very safe. With so many police personnel on the system, you feel safe even while carrying large amount of money in the pocket,'' said Avinash Bhalla, a chemist living in Vikas Puri who used the Metro for travelling to his shop.

Following two days of sheer chaos, the Metro Line III system seemed to have stabilised a bit on Monday. Delhi Metro Rail Corporation spokesperson Anuj Dayal said that while on Saturday the number of passengers using the system was 4.81 lakhs, with about 1.8 lakhs taking to Line III, on Sunday the numbers went up further to 4.92 lakhs and 2.3 lakhs, respectively.

Though some teething troubles pertaining to closing of doors persist because of which the 16 trains running on Line III often get slightly delayed as the driver has to then manually close the doors and resume the journey, overall the system has started settling down. On Monday, over 1 lakh people had travelled on the new line by dusk.

In about a fortnight, the Delhi Metro is hopeful of getting all the systems and installations -- such as lifts at some stations like Kirti Nagar -- in place. "With the novelty factor also wearing thin with the passage of time, in the coming days the queues and the chaos will make way for a system that people will feel proud to call their own,'' said a senior official.

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