New Delhi, Aug 13: Lakhs of commuters turned out today on Raksha Bandhan to help Delhi Metro register its highest ridership of 20.66 lakh people on a single day. Delhi Metro chief E Sreedharan had set a target of crossing 20 lakh by the end of this year, but the same was achieved five months earlier.
Delhi Metro's ridership has been increasing steadily for the past few months and it achieved the significant milestone yesterday when 20.66 lakh people travelled on the new age transport system, surpassing the earlier record of 18.30 lakh people on August one.
This was the first time that DMRC carried over 20 lakh passengers on a single day thus, fulfilling DMRC Managing Director Dr E Sreedharan's dream of achieving this magical figure five months ahead of his projected target of December 2011,” DMRC spokesman Anuj Dayal said.
For the last two months, Delhi Metro has been registering an increased ridership. The average daily ridership which used to be 14 lakh in May 2011 jumped to 15 lakh in June 2011 and further to over 16 lakh in July 2011.
The Delhi Metro network which was just 87 kms in January 2010 added another 100 kms in a period of over next one year and has been considered as one of the fastest Metro expansion in the world.
DMRC today spans over a network of 187 Kms and 143 Metro stations including the Airport Line.
Yesterday, the over-crowded Dwarka Sec 21-Noida/Vaishali Line registered the highest ridership with over 7.98 lakh people travelling on it which was closely followed by the Jehangirpuri-Gurgaon Line at over 7.14 lakh.
The Rithala-Dilshad Garden Line registered a ridership of 3.33 lakh, while the Badarpur-Central Secretariat corridor saw 1.60 lakh people.
Delhi Metro has projected its ridership to reach 20 lakh by the end of 2011. PTI
