Delhi Metro to add additional coaches amid ongoing COVID-19 crisis

File Photo (Credits: Delhi Metro)

New Delhi: In what could be a step to avoid crowding amid the ongoing COVID-19 situation in the country, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has decided to add more coaches on the major lines. As per the official announcement made on Sunday (April 4, 2021), the DMRC will convert its 6-coach trains into 8-coach trains on the Red, Yellow and Blue lines. 

"The conversion is expected to be completed by the end of this year after which all trains on these lines will be 8-coaches," the Delhi Metro said.

The DMRC will be undertaking the conversion of its remaining fleet of 6-coach trains into 8-coach trains by adding 120 additional coaches on the Red (Line-1 ie Rithala to Shaheed Sthal New Bus Adda), Yellow (Line-2 ie HUDA City Centre to Samaypur Badli) and Blue Line (Line-3/4 ie Dwarka Sec-21 to Noida Electronic City/Vaishali) of the Delhi Metro network. 

DMRC is undertaking conversion of its remaining fleet of 6-coach trains into 8- coach trains by adding 120 additional coaches on Red, Yellow & Blue lines. The conversion is expected to be completed by the end of this year after which all trains on these lines will be 8-coaches. — Delhi Metro Rail Corporation I कृपया मास्क पहनें (@OfficialDMRC) April 4, 2021

"By the end of this month, the process of converting all twelve 6-coach trains on Yellow Line into 8-coaches will be completed thereby taking the total number of 8-coach trains on this line to 64. Subsequently, remaining nine 6-coach trains on Blue Line and thirty nine 6-coach trains on Red Line will be converted into 8-coach trains by the end of this year taking the total number of 8-coach trains on these lines to 74 and 39 respectively," the DMRC informed via a press release.

This is being done to increase the carrying capacity of the three main corridors of the Delhi Metro (Red, Blue and Yellow) Lines which contribute to almost 40-50 % of passenger utilization every day. 

Notably, the Delhi Metro currently has a fleet of 336 trains sets comprising 181 six coach trains, 133 eight coach trains and 22 four coach trains across all its corridors.

Meanwhile, India on Monday recorded over 1 lakh new COVID-19 cases, its highest single-day rise since the coronavirus outbreak. The situation in the country has now probably gone from 'bad to worse' as the Centre warned a week back. According to the official data, India reported 1,03,558 new infections and 478 deaths in the last 24 hours.