Metro cashes in on DTC fare hike

Several Metro trains were delayed leading to heavy rush at stations. The lines concerned were the Yellow Line (Jahangirpuri-Central Secretariat) and Blue Line (Dwarka Sector 9-Yamuna Bank). The delay began in the morning and by afternoon,the situation had worsened,leading to overcrowding at several stations.

The stations of Rajiv Chowk,New Delhi,Chawri Bazaar and Chandni Chowk were choc-a-bloc and commuters could barely board trains or alight from them.

There were also complaints that the trains ran at a very slow speed and kept stopping at intervals.

“The train I boarded at Rajiv Chowk stood at the platform for over 15 minutes and even after it started running,it kept stopping every now and then,” said Deepa Saxena,a second-year student of Delhi University. “Announcements were made that a train ahead of ours had a technical problem,so our train had to be delayed.”

The crowd made the condition inside the train suffocating. “Repeated announcements were made apologising for the delay due to the slow speed of our train,” he added.

Pankaj Singh,a sales executive working in Chawri Bazaar,said: “I was delayed by over half an hour on my way to my office today. First,I missed a train at Rajiv Chowk as there was heavy rush and I could not even get into the train. Then the train I boarded was running at a very slow speed and kept stopping.”

Rashmi Chopra,a resident of Dwarka Sector 12 and a regular Metro commuter,said: “Of late there are frequent delays on the Blue Line but today it has been unusually late.”

Maintaining that there had been no major problem,DMRC officials said a particular train suffered a technical fault.

A DMRC spokesperson said: “There was a problem in the static inverter of one of the trains on Line 2 (Jahangirpuri-Central Secretariat) at 1.30 pm today. This affected the Metro services for 12 minutes and the train was withdrawn at Central Secretariat Metro station for further examination.”

The officials attributed the overcrowding to the DTC fare hikes and maintained that this might bring about an increase in footfall in the Metro.

“As the bus fares have increased and are now nearly as much as Metro fares,it is possible that a large section of commuters may shift to Metro,” said a DMRC official.

DAY 1: Tiffs break out
As the fare hike of DTC buses were implemented on Wednesday,the morning office hour rush saw commuters getting into tiffs with bus conductors.

Many students and office-goers were unaware of the fare hike and refused to pay the increased fares. Some passengers who refused to pay were let off by the bus conductors with a warning that they would have to pay according to the new rates from Thursday.

Rates for the ordinary DTC buses were raised to Rs 5,Rs 10 and Rs 15,while the low-floor AC buses will now cost Rs 10,Rs 15,Rs 20 and Rs 25.

The fare for Delhi Metro feeder buses,too,has been revised. The new fares will be Rs 7 up to 8 kms and Rs 10 above 8 kms. The corresponding fares earlier were Rs 5 and Rs 8 respectively.