BJP calls AAP’s denial of medicine to Kejriwal claim a stunt
Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva said the AAP is trying to gain sympathy for the jailed Delhi chief minister through the claim.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday said the hike in fares will “kill the Delhi Metro” operations and questioned its purpose of the transport facility.
“This steep hike in metro fare will kill Delhi Metro. If people stop using it, then what purpose does it serve,” Kejriwal tweeted.
This steep hike in metro fare will kill Delhi Metro. If people stop using it, then what purpose does it serve? https://t.co/xkyae8okRf
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— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) November 25, 2017
Kejriwal was referring to media reports on Friday that the Metro had lost 3 lakh commuters a day after the fare hike on October 10.
Delhi Metro lost over three lakh commuters a day after a steep fare hike came into effect in October, an RTI query had revealed.
The metro’s daily average ridership came down to 24.2 lakh in October from 27.4 lakh in September, translating to a fall of around 11 per cent.
The Blue Line, considered the metro’s busiest, lost over 30 lakh commuters, according to data shared by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) in response to an RTI query.
The 50-km corridor connects Dwarka to Noida. The metro currently has 218-km network across Delhi-NCR.
The fall, in terms of absolute numbers, was over 19 lakh on the Yellow Line, another busy corridor which connects Gurgaon to north Delhi’s Samaypur Badli, DMRC said.
Ridership has come down several notches below the numbers observed in recent years, bucking a trend of rising on the back of the launch of newer sections.
On Friday, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), in its defence had said the loss cannot solely be attributed to the fare hike and there were monthly variations noted throughout the year.
The Delhi government had opposed the fare hike and locked horns with the DMRC and central government over the matter.
(With agency inputs)
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