Widening reach,Metro looks at ways to ease rush

The DMRC,meanwhile,has ordered 131 new broad gauge trains and 49 standard gauge trains. These,however,will come in batches and will be fed into the existing and new lines gradually. DMRC officials feel there might not be immediate respite from the overcrowding in trains and stations,but once all the trains have come in by September 2010 and all lines have been commissioned,the Metro will begin running smoothly.

Out of the 131 broad gauge trains to be supplied by Bombardier,14 have already been delivered and are in different stages of commissioning. Some of these new trains that are already running,however,suffered technical failures.

“Every new train has to be run for a certain distance before it becomes entirely fit and all technical aspects are checked. We received 14 new trains which are already on the tracks and they were introduced to ease the existing pressure. We could have not introduced these new trains and run them only during non-operational hours but that would have meant the overcrowding would continue,” DMRC managing director E Sreedharan said.

The DMRC has now engaged an expert to man every new train. “If there is any technical problem it can be immediately attended to and will not affect the other trains on the track,” Sreedharan added.

Most trains are running on dense crush load,which means they carry passengers excess of their capacity. While every four-coach train has a capacity of 1,200,the dense crush load is estimated at 1,300.

Currently,the Metro has a ridership of 9.5 lakh. With the opening of the Noida line it expected to add approximately 50,000 passengers. Line 3 (Dwarka Sector-9 to Noida City Centre) is the busiest segment; Line 1 (Shahdara to Rithala) has a regular passenger load of 3 lakh and Line 2 (Jahangirpuri to Central Secretariat) carries 2.5 lakh passengers per day.

Line 2 witnesses excessive pressure between Kashmere Gate and Rajiv Chowk. RN Joshi,director,(Finance),said,“By next year,six-coach trains will be run on this route,the frequency of trains will be increased on the line once more trains arrive and once the entire stretch is complete some extra trains will be run between these two terminals.”

The frequency of trains on most lines is also expected to increase once more trains arrive. Though increasing the operational hours has often come up for deliberation in DMRC’s official meetings,the idea has been shelved.

“A few hours are required for regular maintenance and it is during the non-operational hours at night that we undertake such work. In Metro networks across the world,certain stretches are closed for maintenance work even during working hours,but we do not wish to do so because that will greatly inconvenience regular commuters,” Mangu Singh,director (Works) had earlier told mediapersons.