DMRC says Diwali, Chhath festivities may have caused drop in metro ridership, defends fare hike

New Delhi: The Delhi metro on Friday said that apart from the fare hike, festivities such as Diwali and Chhath could also be behind the drop in its ridership in October. The metro also sought to put across the message that it would not review its decision of the fare hike and stressed that it had been done on the recommendations of a fare fixation committee, “a statutory body under the Delhi Metro Act”. [caption id=“attachment_4226591” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. PTI[/caption] Ridership in November has shown a rising trend, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Limited (DMRC) said in a statement. The drop in ridership in October, by around 3 lakh per day, is not solely attributable to the increase in fares as there are, otherwise, monthly variations noted throughout the year, it said. “In October there were five Sundays in comparison to four in September and ridership remains less on holidays than on weekdays. This monthly variation in ridership is dependent on multiple factors like seasons, vacations, holidays, festivals etc,” the statement said. “The month also witnessed extended weekends and holidays due to festivals of Diwali, Chhath Pooja, Bhai Duj, Govardhan etc. The ridership after the fare revision for many days was actually higher than the ridership before the fare revision,” it said.