Kolkata: During the oppressive summer months, especially in July, Metro carried a chunk of commuters across the city and the suburbs. Apart from carrying more than 5.5lakh passengers on the North-South line every day on an average, the carrier came to the aid of nearly 50,000 people, ferrying them across the Hooghly on East-West or the Green line’s Howrah Maidan-Esplanade section.Metro fare earnings were Rs 80crore in these three months.
Metro Railway on Thursday released passenger statistics for May-June and July. According to it, 5.11lakh travelled on the New Garia-Dakshineswar corridor per day in these three months. In the scorching and prolonged summer which extended till July, North-South or Blue line’s ridership rose to 5.66 lakh per day.
However, the Green line or Line 2, opened only on March 15, seems to be catching up fast. In July, daily ridership of East-West’s Howrah section peaked at 47,690 per day whereas in June, 40,000 travelled per day in East-West’s Howrah section every day.
The average daily ridership of East-West Metro’s Sealdah section for three months was 37,777. But it plummeted to an unprecedented 48,846 in July.
However, the average daily ridership of the Purple Line or the Joka-Esplanade corridor, which now runs from Joka to Majerhat was only 615. The average daily ridership of the New Garia-Airport corridor or the Orange line 1,141.