In a move that is expected to bring some major relief to commuters who travel everyday in jam-packed metros, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) is going to procure 17 new eight-coach trains and convert 61 six-coach trains into eight-coach ones to provide convenience to the commuters on the busy Red, Yellow and Blue lines of the Metro network.

A Metro official said that a total of 258 new coaches are being procured for this much-needed expansion out of which 162 new coaches will be assembled at M/s Bombardier’s facility in Savli, Gujarat and 96 new coaches will be procured from BEMl’s plant in Bengaluru.

“These coaches are being procured specifically to cater to the requirements of the Rithala - Dilshad Garden (Red line), Jahangirpuri - HUDA City Centre (Yellow line) and the Dwarka Sector 21 - NOIDA City Centre/ Vaishali (Blue line) corridors,” said the official.

Currently, Red line has no ‘8-coach’ trains and is catered to by 10 ‘6- coach’ trains and 19 ‘four- coach’ trains. On the other hand, Blue and Yellow lines have no ‘four-coach’ trains. Blue line has a total of 25 ‘eight- coach trains’ and 46 ‘six- coach’ trains while the Yellow line has 33 eight-coach trains and 27 six-coach trains.

The three lines cater to maximum number of commuters with the Blue line clocking an average ridership of 9.56 lakh in June followed by Yellow line with 8.82 lakh commuters and Red line with 3.56 lakh commuters.

“The new coaches will start arriving in Delhi from the third quarter of 2016 and all coaches will be delivered by early 2018. After the delivery of all the coaches, Delhi Metro will have 17 new eight-coach trains and 61 eight-coach trains converted from six-coach ones. The new trains would be utilised on Red, Yellow and Blue lines,” said a statement issued by the DMRC.

The addition of these trains is expected to reduce overcrowding on these busy corridors. Currently, Delhi Metro carries approximately 25 lakh people per day on its networks.