New Rapid Metro line in Gurgaon expected to double ridership

The first phase of Rapid Metro, which was launched in 2013, has a daily ridership of over 35,000 commuters, less than half the traffic anticipated by officials.

The ridership of the Rapid Metro service is expected to exceed 70,000 commuters as the service provides connectivity to several hubs in the city.

The ridership is expected to reach 70,000. (Sanjeev Verma/HT PHOTO)

The first phase of Rapid Metro, which was launched in 2013, has a daily ridership of over 35,000 commuters, less than half the traffic anticipated by officials.

Although senior officials refused to divulge the expected ridership on the south extension line, which opened on Friday, sources claim the ridership of the Rapid Metro network is expected to exceed 70,000 as the service covers the corporate offices, luxury automobile showrooms and other hubs of the city along the Golf Course Road.

In addition, the Golf Course Road also has a presence of upscale residential colonies such as the Aralias, The Magnolias, The Belaire and DLF Park Place, among many others.

A large number of the people work in the maintenance and security departments of these condominiums and travel from New Delhi and other parts of Gurgaon every day.

Similarly, the new line also provides connectivity to Cyber City, which has several MNCs and corporate offices, where many from southern Gurgaon travel to on a daily basis.

“At present, the Rapid Metro has an average daily ridership of 35,000-40,000 which is expected to double after the Phase-2 starts functioning,” a spokesperson of Rapid Metro said.

However, Rajiv Banga, the managing director and the chief executive officer of Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (rail), said that they are not predicting any official ridership on the route and are adopting the wait-and-watch strategy.

“In 2013, we had predicted a high ridership and unfortunately the same was not correlated. Hence, we are not anticipating or predicting the ridership for the new line (south extension). However, there should be a significant spike,” Banga said.