Mumbai Metro every 5 minutes during non-peak hours from Monday

MMOPL operates at a frequency of three minutes during peak hours.

Commuters on the Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar Metro line will now be able to board trains every five minutes even during non-peak hours from September 24. Reason: the operators of the Metro line have increased the frequency of services to cater to increasing ridership.

According to Mumbai Metro One Pvt Ltd (MMOPL), the time gap between trains has been reduced from 8 minutes to 5 minutes between 11:30am and 4:30pm. (Pramod Thakur/HT PHOTO)

According to Mumbai Metro One Pvt Ltd (MMOPL), the time gap between trains has been reduced from 8 minutes to 5 minutes between 11:30am and 4:30pm. This will allow 44 additional services to be run on the route, which translates to carrying 66,000 additional commuters, MMOPL said. MMOPL operates at a frequency of three minutes during peak hours. “Keeping in mind the on-going and upcoming festivities, footfalls are likely to go up. Mumbai Metro has increased train services from 396 to 440 during off-peak hours between 11:30am and 4:30pm,” a MMOPL spokesperson said.

With more services on the route, more passengers will be able to travel comfortably, MMOPL officials said. According to MMOPL, 2017-18 saw a 13% rise in ridership as compared to 2016-17, prompting it to increase frequency of services. MMOPL had earlier increased services from 370 to 396 a day in rush hour periods. Currently, MMOPL ferries around 3.50 lakh passengers daily on weekdays.

MMOPL will increase the number of coaches from four to six once the daily frequency is three minutes during peak and non-peak hours. This would increase the carrying capacity of each train from the existing 1,500 to 2,250 commuters.