At 19.3 crore, Metro posts highest post-Cov footfall
Times of India | 3 April 2024
Kolkata: Kolkata Metro has carried 19.3 crore passengers in the financial year that ended on March 31, 2024, Metro Railway said on Tuesday. This was 9% more than the previous one. Though the passenger count is lower than before the pandemic, it is the highest post-Covid. In 2022-23, the passenger count was 17.7 crore. “This is around 9% more than the previous fiscal,” a Metro Railway spokesperson said.
However, the actual passenger count is higher as the Esplande-Howrah Maidan segment of the under-river Green line has not been taken into account.Neither has the report included the passenger count on the New Garia-Ruby Orange line. These stretches, along with the Taratala-Majerhat segment of the Purple line were inaugurated on March 15 and carried around 6 lakh passengers till March 31.
Since March 15, Metro Railway, which owns and operates the city’s mass transit network, added three new Metro lines. The Orange line’s Phase I (New Garia-Airport’s New Garia-Ruby section), Phase II of the Purple line (Joka-Esplanade’s Majerhat extension) and the East-West Metro or the Green line’s under-river segment (from Esplanade to Howrah Maidan) were flagged off by PM Narendra Modi on March 6, thus adding 11km to the existing 47km. A steep ridership is expected in the new fiscal (2024-25) as East-West Metro’s under-river section has been registering around 50,000 daily passenger count.
The entire 16km East-West Metro is likely to be added this fiscal. Before that, the 3km Noapara-Dum Dum Cantonment or Phase I of the Yellow line, which underwent safety inspections last week, will be operational. The Yellow line may reach the airport, too, soon afterwards. Kolkata now has four lines operating — the Blue or the North-South line, which registers around 6 lakh daily ridership, the Green line, which registers around 90,000 daily ridership in two segments (Sector V-Sealdah and Esplanade-Howrah Maidan), the Orange line (around 2,000 daily ridership) and the Purple line (around 800 daily ridership).
Metro officials said the Blue line carried 18 crore passengers last fiscal. Most passenger count of around 2 crore were recorded in Dum Dum, followed by Esplanade (1.3 crore) and Rabindra Sadan (1.2 crore) stations.
“The Green line (Sector V-Sealdah) has carried 1.2 crore in the outgoing fiscal. The maximum passenger count of 50 lakh was recorded at Sealdah, followed by 22 lakh at Sector V and 12 lakh at Karunamoyee,” an official said. The Purple line (which ran 6.5km from Joka to Taratala), carried 1.3 lakh passengers in the last fiscal. “Since Metro has started running below the Hooghly and new corridors are expected in new fiscal, the count will go up further,” he added.