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Pune Metro sees a dip in revenue after 3 months
From both the metro lines, the revenue generated in March was Rs76,43,500 and in May it was Rs27,97,146
The revenue generation on both the metro lines – Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) to Phugewadi and Vanaz to Garware College has witnessed a dip in the last three months after it started service on March 6 on the priority stretch of 12 km.
From both the lines, the revenue generated in March was Rs76,43,500 and in May it was Rs27,97,146.
“The ridership number had surged massively after its launch on March 6 which generated huge revenue in initial days. Now some drop has been witnessed and that is because of connectivity. Once the connectivity increases in the next few months, revenue and ridership will again see a surge,” said Hemant Sonawane, public relations officer, Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation Limited (Maha-Metro).
More people have preferred the metro travelling on Vanaz to Garware college (Line 2) route as compared to PCMC and Phugewadi (Line 1).
From Line 2, every half an hour from 8 am – one train runs, while on Line 1, a train runs every hour.
“The frequency of train is decided as per the requirement of ridership. If there is a need, we will increase the frequencies of the trains on both the lines,” added Sonawane.
The introduction of the ticket app has received a good response as a majority of commuters are using the app for tickets instead of standing at the counter.
“70% of tickets every day are issued via mobile app and QR code scanner which has reduced big queues at the ticket counter. We are expecting the number of digital tickets will increase more in the next few months,” added Sonawane.
Work picks up pace on other metro stations
As the metro service is currently operational on 12 kilometres, the Maha-Metro has sped up the work of stations like Shivajinagar, Civil court, and Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).
There is a huge demand from the public to extend the route to the Civil Court as it will cover stations like Deccan Gymkhana, Chhatrapati Sambhaji Garden and PMC.
The civil court station will be an interchange station for Line 1 and Line 2 respectively.
“Next six months are crucial as work is simultaneously going on at the various stations. We are expecting to complete our remaining work by March 2023,” added Sonawane.
Regular commuter, Tushar Zende from Anand Nagar, said, “The Maha-Metro should expedite the work of other stations to increase the connectivity so that people will use the service for daily commuting.”
