Airport Metro to run from 5am

The airport expressline Metro will run for two additional hours from Sunday. Poor average footfall — 8,000 daily — forced the concessionaire company to increase the service hours. Subhendu Ray reports.

The airport expressline Metro will run for two additional hours from Sunday. Poor average footfall — 8,000 daily — forced the concessionaire company to increase the service hours.

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From Sunday, the high speed Metro will start operations at 5am and continue till 11pm. At present, the line operates for 16 hours: From 6am till 10pm. In a couple of weeks, it will be further increased by two more hours, said an official from Reliance Infrastructure, the concessionaire company.

“By increasing the operating hours, airport Expressline will also meet the global standard service hours for airport express links. Globally, express links’ operating hours range between 18 to 20 hours a day. Increase in service hours will add to expressline’s footfall of airport-bound commuters to a large extent,” said a senior official of the concessionaire company.

“Once service hours are increased to 20 hours, the expressline Metro will be able to cater to international as well as domestic passengers arriving or departing by late night or early morning flights,” said Mangu Singh, director (works), Delhi Metro Rail Corporation.

Singh said that footfall will further increase once the passenger and baggage check-in facilities are made available at select Metro stations on May 1.

“We need at least four hours for maintenance of trains and tracks every day. This is called white hours,” said a spokesperson of the concessionaire company.

The system undergoes three levels of maintenance — cleaning of trains’ interiors and exteriors, technical inspection of operating trains and track maintenance — that requires at least four hours, said the officials.