Faster, cheaper, more frequent: Delhi Metro revamps Airport Express line

New Delhi: After operating Airport Express Metro Line for the past one year, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation today decided to reduce passenger fares by up to 40 per cent from 24 July.

As per the revised structure, minimum fare on the corridor will now be Rs 20 instead of Rs 30 and the maximum fare has come down to Rs 100 from Rs 180, DMRC Executive Director (Corporate Communications) Anuj Dayal said.

This significant reduction in fare prices comes almost a month after Union Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu asked DMRC Managing Director Mangu Singh to try to reduce the fares and increase the frequency and linking transport facilities on the line.

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Besides reducing fares, the frequency on the corridor has been improved from 15 minutes to 10 minutes 30 seconds during peak hours and the maximum speed of the trains has been increased to 80 kmph from 70 kmph.

The travel time from New Delhi Metro Station to IGI Airport will now be reduced to 19 minutes only.

Feeder Bus service from Delhi Aerocity to Terminal T1 has also been made available at a frequency of 15 minutes from 6 AM to 10 PM and total daily train trips on the corridor have been increased from 148 to 168 now, Dayal said.

The Fare Store Value Card offered to the commuters will have a discount of 10 per cent and DMRC will also offer further discounts on the purchase of multiple journey trip cards, he said.

“The revised fares will be beneficial for daily commuters travelling from areas like Dwarka and Dhaula Kuan to New Delhi and vice versa. The Airport bound commuters also will be further benefited.

“However, rate of all the existing cards and discount schemes will be discontinued. In addition, a special scheme for Sundays will be there only for single journey token users having a minimum fare of Rs 20 and maximum fare of Rs 60,” Dayal said.

The 30 trips, 45 trips and 60 trips cards, with a validity of one month, will be available for customers. In case of 60 trip cards, the minimum and maximum one way fares will further come down to less than Rs 9 and Rs 40 respectively.

The revised fares for 30, 45 and 60 trip products will be available only after exhausting the existing loaded products or after current validity is over.

Moreover, there will not be sale of Return Journey Token on Sundays. The sale of Single Journey token Sunday product will only be through manned counters and not through ticket vending machines, Dayal informed.

The fare of Sunday Single Journey Token has been reduced further to attract more commuters.

The existing fare products for defence personnel, students and privileged will be discontinued for sale, once the revised fares come into effect, and in lieu, they can buy newly introduced standard products, Dayal said.

Ever since DMRC took over the responsibility of operations of the Airport Express Line on 1 July, last year, the daily average ridership in June this year was increased to 13,133 as against 10,069 commuters in July last, an increase of 3,064 commuters every day.

In the last one year, ridership on the corridor has registered a substantial increase of 30.43 per cent till June, 2014, Dayal said.

DMRC took over operations of the 22.7 km-long Airport Express link with an operations and maintenance team of 100 officials to handle the line on July 1, 2013 after Reliance Infrastructure’s subsidiary Delhi Airport Metro Express Private Ltd (DAMEPL) terminated its concessionaire agreement.

PTI