The Hindu : New Delhi News : Delhi Metro out to woo more passengers

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Saturday, Mar 10, 2007
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New Delhi

Delhi Metro out to woo more passengers

Smriti Kak Ramachandran

Targets students, multinationals as potential commuters

NEW DELHI: Aiming to take its rider-ship figure to 26.17 lakh by the year 2011, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has started targeting school and college students and multinational companies in nearby Noida and Gurgaon as potential commuters.

Touting the Metro as a fast, efficient and convenient mode of transport, the DMRC wants multinationals to make Metro stations the collection points for picking and dropping their staff from homes and offices.

And the incentive for the staff to switch to the Metro would be air-conditioned cabs to travel from the station to the office.

"We are asking companies to use the Metro stations as pick-up and drop points for their staff. Instead of picking them up from their houses in non-airconditioned cabs, they can ask the employees to come to the nearest Metro station and from thereon they will be ferried to office in air-conditioned comfort," said a senior DMRC official.

While one call centre in Noida has already taken up the offer, negotiations are on with several others, the official said.

Pointing out that the DMRC cannot give any freebies to attract riders, the official said: "We cannot lower the rates or give big discounts, but we will allow companies that tie up with us multiple entry and exit facility for a vehicle during the day. Also, the debit card that we give to passengers will get them a 10 per cent discount on every journey. We did get a feedback to lower the fares, but we cannot do so as the fare fixation committee has decided that we cannot change the existing slabs."

With off peak-hour rider-ship being as low as 25 per cent, the DMRC is also hoping to popularise the Metro among school and college students.

"We want more school and college students to opt for the Metro. At present it is popular among students on the North Campus of Delhi University, but students living in East Delhi for instance do not use the Metro. It is this section of people we want to target," said the official.

"Once the new academic session begins, we will go to schools and colleges and make presentations about the Metro and its benefits. It will be like a familiarisation exercise."

Another exercise being undertaken by the DMRC to popularise the Metro and increase rider-ship is setting up shops, malls and taking up other forms of property development at the stations itself. But most importantly, the DMRC is working on improving the feeder services.

"We realise once the feeder services are in place, the rider-ship will grow automatically. We have identified the areas for running feeder services and are working on its early implementation," the DMRC official said.

"There is a mall coming up in Welcome and wherever we have any space available we are using it for parking purposes or using it commercially. We are lending out space to advertisers and that is bringing in revenue. Also when we have shops and malls on the stations, we will attract more people, which will increase rider-ship," he reasoned.

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