Odd-even: Metro decides on 70 additional trips daily

Delhi Metro trains will make 70 additional trips during the odd-even trial period, taking the number of daily trips to 3,192, that will lead to a marginal increase in the frequency of its services to tackle an expected rush of passengers.

These have been distributed over Red, Blue, Yellow and Orange (Airport Express) lines with 12, 11, 17 and 30 additional trips respectively. According to data provided by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), the total number of trips undertaken in November stood at 3,122.

DMRC, which has in its fleet 220 trains, will be using 198 trains daily to achieve the target. "We will be pressing into service the maximum number of trains possible operationally during this period keeping only the essential maintenance reserve," a metro official said.

Accordingly, the highest train frequency on Blue Line (Line 3/4), that connects Dwarka to Noida City Centre, would be 2 minutes 30 seconds (between 9-10 AM). The same would be 2 mins 18 secs on Line 2, that connects Samaypur Badli to Gurgaon's Huda City Centre.

During off-peak hours (11 AM to 5 PM), trains would run at an interval of 2 minutes 42 seconds on Blue Line while the same would be 2 mins 40 secs on Yellow Line, a slight improvement over the existing timings.

The Metro authorities are also resorting to additional shifts of guards and customer facilitation agents at its major stations while additional manpower will be deployed to handle "increased load" on the ticketing system.

On August 28, DMRC had carried its highest ever ridership of over 32 lakhs with an operational fleet of 196 trains.

In a radical step to curb alarming air pollution, Delhi Government has decided to restrict plying of private cars bearing odd and even registration numbers to alternate days from January 1 to 15 in the national capital.

Nearly 10 lakh private cars will stay off Delhi roads daily once the odd-even formula is enforced with the drastic reduction in traffic flow expected to significantly reduce the high level of pollution in the city.