Nine days since it was launched and the new Mandi House and Janpath Metro stations have become a big hit in the national Capital with over 1.23 lakh people using them on a daily basis. Besides, things have worked out just as the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) had planned as the busy Rajiv Chowk Metro station has been decongested with a decreased footfall of up to 20 per cent.
launched on June 26, the new Mandi House inter-change station alone has seen an average ridership of 12,500. Meanwhile, the average footfall of the same station has been approximately 1.06 lakh so far. Before the station was opened, Rajiv Chowk had an average five lakh footfall. But after Mandi House station was opened, the number has decreased by a lakh. “We have achieved our primary aim of decongesting Rajiv Chowk Metro station which is now seeing a footfall of four lakh passengers instead of five lakh. Just like we had thought, the number of commuters who check-in at the station is in thousands. But the number of commuters who use Mandi House station as an interchange is in lakhs, which is a very positive sign for us,” said Anuj Dayal, chief spokesperson, DMRC.
Both the Mandi House and Janpath stations are an extension of the Violet line (Badarpur-Central Secretariat).
Similarly, the Central Secretariat metro station also has witnessed a slump in ridership with the figure falling to 1.60 lakh now against the two lakh ridership before the Mandi House station was opened. Meanwhile, the Janpath station which opens just in front of the famous Janpath Market, too has seen a sizeable usage with an average ridership of 5000 passengers per day.
With the inter-change facility in Mandi House station, commuters of Badarpur-Central Secretariat line (Violet line) bound for Noida, Vaishali and Dwarka are now able to change trains at Mandi House without changing trains at Central Secretariat and Rajiv Chowk. The same benefit is also for those who want to board the Violet line while coming from the Blue line (Dwarka Sector 21-Vaishali/Noida City Centre).
Trains on the Mandi House-Central Secretariat section, also known as the ‘Heritage line’, run at a frequency of 3.25 minutes. Both the Janpath and Mandi House stations are equipped with token vending machines and add-value cards readers besides other facilities for passengers.
Expected to benefit 70,000 additional commuters, the station has been of great help to daily commuters. “The best thing is that it saves a lot of time. Earlier, to go from Vaishali to Khan Market, where I work, I had to change trains twice. Now its just one single step and it’s a lot easier,” said Shreya Gupta, who works in a boutique at Khan Market.