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The Aqua Line registered its highest single-day ridership on June 3, crossing the 20,000 mark for the time, the Noida Metro Rail Corporation on Tuesday said attributing the hike to increased frequency of trains.
Before this, the metro service between Noida and Greater Noida, launched in January this year, had achieved its highest ridership of 19,413 on May 27, the NMRC said.
"The NMRC crossed the 20,000 mark and recorded the highest ridership till date by carrying 20,614 passengers on June 3 (Monday). The increase in frequency of trains to 7 minutes 30 seconds during peak hours and 10 minutes during non-peak hours which had been implemented from June 3 is one of the major factors for the increase in ridership," it said in a statement.
The NMRC said it had increased the frequency of the metro trains for weekdays -- Monday to Friday. Earlier, the Aqua Line used to operate at a frequency of 10 minutes during peak hours and 15 minutes during non-peak hours on weekdays. On Saturdays and Sundays, the frequency was 15 minutes and will continue to remain the same.
The operator of the Aqua Line said it has taken various measures to increase ridership.
"The most important reason behind increase in ridership is improved connectivity between Aqua Line and DMRC's Blue Line stations with the help of dedicated pathway and e-rickshaw service between Sector 51 of Aqua Line and Sector 52 Metro Station of the Blue Line and providing improved feeder bus connectivity," it said.
Aqua Line commuters have three options to generate ticket and travel in the metro. The first option is by using the smart card which also offers a 10 per cent discount on every journey.
The second option is by purchasing the QR code from the customer care counter and the third is to generate the QR code by using the NMRC mobile app which can be downloaded for free, the NMRC said.
"Over the past few months, the sale of tickets through purchase of QR code and especially through the mobile app has increased considerably. This trend clearly shows that the commuters of the Aqua Line have given preference to these two ticketing options," it added.
The NMRC said it has also been interacting with Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs), corporate offices and educational institutions to take their suggestions and feedback to improve the services of the Aqua Line and the feeder buses.
"Based on the suggestions from these sectors, NMRC has also deployed E – rickshaws at the stations to provide last mile connectivity to commuters of the Aqua Line," it said.
By the end of May, the Aqua Line had an average daily ridership of 13, 317 passengers, according to the NMRC.
Built for Rs 5,503 crore, the Aqua Line was launched on January 25 this year and connects the twin cities in western Uttar Pradesh's Gautam Buddh Nagar district, running over 29.7 km via 21 metro stations.
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