100 months of the Delhi Metro

From six trains with a frequency of 15 minutes to 160 trains with a frequency of 2.5 minutes — for those travelling on Delhi Metro, the 100 months of its operation is a celebration indeed. On Sunday,Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) marked 100 months of operations as iti s awaiting the green signal from the Centre for work to start on the third phase. A DMRC spokesperson said: “When we started, we had six trains and made 70 trips. Today, there are 160 trains and 2,400 trips are made every day.” Beginning the journey on December 24, 2002, with 8.5 km, Delhi Metro today has 183 km of network and connects the capital with its satellite cities of Noida and Gurgaon. Currently, Delhi Metro has 135 stations. It hasn’t only ramped up services but also the workforce — earlier, only 1,000 employees worked with the DMRC, the number has now touched 8,000. From three women drivers in 2002, Delhi Metro now employs 25 women drivers. The number of drivers has also gone up from 20 in 2002 to 800 now. “This centenary month of Metro train operations also saw a considerable rise in the average ridership figures — from 82,179 in December 2002 to 14,16,420 in March 2011,” said a Delhi Metro spokesperson. The rise in ridership is mainly attributed to a number of inaugurations on different corridors during the last nine years of its existence since 2002, he said. Between 2002 and August 22, 2010, Delhi Metro had carried over 1.25 billion commuters — which is even more than the projected total population of India in 2011:1.20billion. Currently, 160 Metro trains make over 2,400 trips every day traversing about 70,000 km and carrying about 15 lakh passengers on working days. With phase III expected to cover about 108 km, the network will become 295 km by 2015, making it one of the fastest expanding Metro networks in the world, said the spokesperson. Work on the third phase is expected to take off soon. It has been approved by the state government. Partial funds have also been approved by both the Centre and the state government,said officials.