Closure of malls, colleges may lead to variation in passenger journey figures: Delhi Metro

As government has anunced several measures to combat coronavirus, including closure of shopping malls, schools and colleges, re could be "some variation in passenger journey figures" of Delhi Metro in coming days, DMRC said on Monday.

number of passenger journeys is dependent on various factors at any given point of time such as vacations, examinations, monsoon season, festivals, strikes, closures etc. and line utilisation follows a monthly pattern accordingly, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) said in a statement.

"It is to mention that in comparison to passenger journey figures of corresponding month of March in 2019 and 2020, re is significant variation with aver journey figures of 46.22 lakh and 46.53 recorded so far respectively (rar showing a marginal increase over last year)," it said.

It was also stated that every year, month of March "witnesses a natural dip of 10-15 per cent" in comparison to figures for month of February.

same trend was visible up to March 15 this year too with passenger journeys going from 57.13 lakh (in February) to 46.53 lakh (in March), it said.

"However, as government has anunced several measures to combat coronavirus which include closure of malls, cinemas, schools, colleges etc., it may be natural to witness some variation in passenger journey figures of Delhi Metro in coming days," statement said.

It is also to be ted that taking into account all weekdays (except Holi on March 10 when Delhi Metro was closed till 2:30 pm) of March so far, aver passenger journeys is recorded at 55.42 lakh against overall aver of first 15 days of March at 46.53 lakh, it ded.