To cater to lakhs of commuters on the crowded Blue line of the Delhi Metro, the first eight-coached train will be inducted on the route (Dwarka Sector 21 to Noida City Centre/Vaishali) on Monday.
This eight-coach train will be introduced at Dwarka Sector 21 Metro Station at 8 am and will go towards Noida City Centre. Soon, all the trains on the corridor will be upgraded to eight-coach trains. This will be the first of a total of 31 eight-coach trains, which will be introduced on the corridor by the year-end in a phased manner.
Officials said that while the capacity of the four-coach train is 1,200 to 1,500, a six-coach train can accommodate 1,800 to 2,100 passengers per trip. However, with addition of another two coaches, the Metro train will be able to accommodate at least 2,400 to 3,000 passengers per trip.
According to Delhi Metro chief Mangu Singh, by this year end, 31 out of 61 trains which operate on this corridor will be converted into eight-coach ones. After commencing the process of converting the trains on the Yellow line (Jahangirpuri to Huda City Centre) into eight-coach ones, The Delhi Metro started preparations to induct such trains on the Blue line as well.
Except the Airport link, the Delhi Metro records an average daily footfall of 23.5 lakh commuters. Out of this an average of 9.25 lakh passengers, commute on the Blue line daily.
The Gurgaon and Noida lines are the busiest lines of the Delhi Metro network that record a combined daily footfall of over 13 lakh passengers daily. Singh said that in the last one-and-half year, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has added a total of 127 coaches to the trains on the Gurgaon and Noida corridors. "24 eight-coach trains were inducted on the Jahangirpuri to Huda City Centre Corridor," he added.