Metro parking, feeders only for train users soon

If you use a metro feeder bus for commuting or park your car at a metro parking but do not travel by trains, you may soon land in trouble. Subhendu Ray reports.

If you use a metro feeder bus for commuting or park your car at a metro parking but do not travel by trains, you may soon land in trouble.

HT Image

Delhi Metro wants to fine people who use metro facilities such as feeder buses and metro parking but do not commute by trains. The step, officials said, would allow more people to commute by the metro.

Sharat Sharma, director (operations), DMRC, said many people who do not use the metro park their cars in stations parking lots and use feeder buses. “We need to check the trend to allow metro commuters enjoy the facilities. This will also help in increasing commuters during non-peak hours. But this will be possible only when the multi-option More Card is made functional,” he said.

Once operational, the More Card can be used to pay fares in feeder buses, parking charges apart from metro fares.

“With the More Card in place, we will be able to identify and penalise those who do not board the metro trains within half an hour of using either the parking or the feeder bus facility.”

Presently, the card can be used only in metro trains and a few feeder buses.

Meanwhile, Delhi Metro officials are targeting local social and religious gatherings to increase its commuter base during non-peak hours (6am-9am, 11am-5pm and 8pm-11pm). Station managers have been assigned to make rosters of events at the vicinity of metro stations.

This drive, which DMRC had initiated a few months ago, helped increase metro’s commuter base during non-peak hours.

“To attract masses who attend social or religious programmes, we have started selling tokens at their premises so that they find it convenient to commute by the metro. We also plan to make temporary arrangements of feeder services on demand so that they get last-mile connectivity,” said Sharma.

The focus is primarily on two lines — line 5 (Inderlok-Mundka) and line 6 (Central Secretariat-Badarpur) — which register the lowest ridership, especially during non-peak hours. Line 5 registers an average daily ridership of 70,000, while line 6 registers 1.5 lakh. The highest average daily ridership is recorded on line 2 (Jahangirpuri-Gurgaon) at 8 lakh and line 3 (Dwarka-Noida) at 8.5 lakh.