JOIN USMen continue to travel in ladies' coach in Metro
Women commuters on the Red Line, Dilshad Garden to Rithala, complain that the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has failed to check male passengers travelling in ladies’ coach.
They say that male passengers refuse to leave the bogey when asked. “Not only that they will sit and won’t get up. When we ask them to leave the coach they say you (women) also travel in our (general) bogey,” said Priya Thakur, a DU student who daily takes Metro from Shastri Park station.
“There is a need to sensitise the male commuters and make them aware about travelling etiquettes on the Metro,” she added.
Some women passengers said that the Red Line is the most neglected corridor on the entire Metro network. “It is the first Line of the Metro but there are no inspections on this stretch. Whether it is festival or not, men keep travelling in the ladies’ coach,” said Ankita Das, a private firm employee who takes Metro from Rohini West station.
“It seems either the DMRC is not interested or has simply failed to check this menace,” she added. A few lady commuters said that due to lack of six-coach trains on the corridor men travel in ladies’s coach. “There are very less six-coach trains on the Red Line.
When other lines have got eight-coach trains why can’t we have six-coach trains at least?” said Surbhi Jaikrishnan, a homemaker who lives in Dilshad Garden. “It’s a high time now the authorities should also increase the frequency of trains on the corridor,” she added.
The DMRC said it is in the process to bring in more six-coach trains on the Red Line. “Earlier the footfall was not too high on the corridor but in the past couple of years the ridership on the stretch has increased many folds. So commuters are facing some problems,” said a senior official with the DMRC.
“Soon all the four-coach trains will be replaced with six-coach ones,” he added.