Title - Delhi Metro suggests lower fares for non-peak hours

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Metro touched a record single-day ridership of 23.5 lakh on July 1 this year. But the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation wants more. Proposing a system of differential fares for the first time, DMRC wants to offer discounts to commuters who opt to travel duringnon-peak hours.

"Several cities abroad have different fares for different times of the day. This is an option that we plan to offer to the fare fixation committee once it is set up," said Sharat Sharma, director (operations), Delhi Metro.

The reason for the differential fare, says Sharma, is the low ridership during the off-peak hours. According to Delhi Metro figures, the capacity utilization of the coaches during this period is only 25%, or an average of 78 commuters in every coach. Compare this to the peak capacity, when the coaches carry 300 commuters on an average.

The suggestion is to offer the discounts not only time-wise but also line-wise, Sharma said. "The fact is that the ridership pattern needs to be level through the day for the Metro network to be fully effective."

The fare fixation committee is expected to be set up soon. Delhi Metro had earlier made a pitch for revising fares as well, citing increasing operational costs for a fare hike. According to Sharma, while the Delhi Metro was still making operational profits, the agency was running in losses as it has to pay back the JICA loan and spend on maintenance.

"One way to entice more riders is through better services, which is why we are also conducting a feedback survey of commuters. The other way is to offer incentives such as discounts for traveling during non-peak hours," added Sharma. A whopping 65-70% of the current ridership of the Delhi Metro comes from the peak hour figures.

At present, the Delhi Metro network carries on an average 20.1 lakh passengers over a 190km long network — more riders than the Taipei or Singapore Metros. The one Metro system in Asia that carries more passengers is Hong Kong, which has 4.1 million commuters travelling over 218km.

The Delhi Metro is also looking to penalize those using Metro facilities like feeder services and station parking while not using the Metro system. Said Sharma, "Our observation has been that the feeder buses and the parking facilities provided by the Delhi Metro are being used by those who are not entering the Metro system at all. This needs to be reduced to make the system more efficient."

This could be done through a time limit option, he added. "Perhaps a time limit could be introduced, where a user has to get into the Metro system within half-hour after entering the system through the feeder bus or parking, else the user will be penalized," said Sharma.

According to him, the use of the dedicated "More" cards could be one way of bringing down use of Delhi Metro facilities by non-Metro riders. However, with around two crore Metro smart cards already operational, Sharma admits that conversion to the "More" card has been difficult. The "More" card is the inter-modal common mobility smart card introduced by the ministry of urban development earlier this year.