OREANDA-NEWS.  The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) is going to induct the first ever eight coach Metro train into commuter services on Line-3/4 (Dwarka Sec-21 to NOIDA City Centre/Vaishali) from tomorrow (19th August).

 This eight coach train will be introduced into service from Dwarka Metro station at 8:00 AM tomorrow and will go towards NOIDA City Centre. This will be the first of a total of 31eight coach trains which will be introduced on the Blue line in a phased manner.

 Also, in view of the high ridership observed on the eve of Raksha Bandhan and the day itself for the past few years, the Delhi Metro has decided to run around 300 extra train trips each on 19th August 2013 and on ‘Raksha Bandhan’, i.e. 20th August 2013, and will deploy additional personnel to cater to the extra rush of commuters expected on these two days.

 Trains will be run at peak-hour frequency from 8:00 AM to 8.30 PM on 19th and 20th August 2013 and trains which are normally withdrawn from lines during off peak hours ( i.e, 11:30 AM to 04:30 PM) will be kept in service performing around 300 extra trips making a total of about 2900 trips on that day.

 DMRC will also deploy 93 additional shifts of Guards/Customer Facilitation Agents (CFA) at major Metro stations to help and guide commuters on these two days. The prominent stations to have extra CFA deployment are Dilshad Garden, Shahdara, Welcome, Seelampur, Shastri Park, Pitampura, Rohini East, Rohini West, Rithala, Jahangir Puri, Adarsh Nagar, GTB Nagar, Yamuna Bank, Uttam Nagar East, Nawada, Noida City Centre, Botanical Garden, Noida Sec-18, MG Road, HUDA City Centre, Sarita Vihar, Lajpat Nagr, Badarpur, Peeragarhi, Nangloi, Mundka etc.

 In addition, extra personnel will be deployed to handle the increased load on the ticketing system and the Metro ticketing staff on 75 stations will do 123 additional shifts. The extra manpower will be deployed mainly at Dilshad Garden, Shahdara, Welcome, Rohini West, Tilak Nagar, Nawada, Uttam Nagar East, Yamuna Bank, Noida City Centre, Botanical Garden, Noida Sec-18, Moolchand, Govindpuri, Badarpur, Qutab Minar, Malviya Nagar, Saket, HUDA City Centre, Peeragarhi, Nangloi, Mundka etc.

 The Delhi Metro normally witnesses greater rush of commuters on the eve of Raksha Bandhan Day. In 2012, over 22 lakh passengers traveled on a day before Rakhi by the Metro whereas close to 20 lakh travelled on day of Rakhi. At present, the Delhi Metro ridership has already increased substantially as the Metro carried over 25 lakh passengers for the first time ever on 8th August 2013.