Delhi Metro to resume full services from Saturday

With the Delhi Metro set to resume full services from Saturday, DMRC chief Mangu Singh appealed to commuters to follow staggered timings for travelling to break the peak hour rush and ensure social distancing in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Airport Express Line will resume services on Saturday as part of the third stage of the graded reopening of the Delhi Metro. With this, all lines of the urban transporter will become operational throughout the day.

Follow latest updates on the Covid-19 pandemic here

Under stage one, Rapid Metro, Yellow, Blue, Pink, Red, Violet and Green lines were made operational with restricted service hours. The second stage began on Friday with Magenta and Grey lines also opening their doors to commuters and service hours being extended.

With the third stage, the Delhi Metro will follow its regular timings, from 6 AM to 11 PM.

In a video message posted on the Twitter handle of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on Friday, Singh said, "Delhi Metro will resume full services from tomorrow as it was during normal days. We appeal to people to stagger the time of their journeys to break the peak hour rush so that more passengers can be carried by the system."

"I also appeal to employers to allow their employees to come to work following a staggered time schedule so that they can travel in metro accordingly. This will ensure social distancing at work and also during travel in metro. Those who are working from home should continue to do so," the DMRC chief said.

The frequency of trains during non-peak hours will be the same as peak hours so people can follow staggered timings for their journeys and still avail metro services, he added.

The DMRC has appealed to people to use the rapid transport only if urgently needed.

On Monday, the Delhi Metro had resumed services with curtailed operations on the Yellow Line and Rapid Metro.

Blue and Pink lines resumed services on Wednesday; Red, Violet and Green lines were made operational on Thursday; and Magenta and Grey lines on Friday.

Metro services in Delhi and the National Capital Region were closed on March 22 to check the spread of coronavirus.

"With services available on most of the metro lines now, the total ridership recorded in today's operational hours (from 7 AM to 1 PM) in the morning and then from 4 PM till 07:30 PM was nearly 1,28,886," the DMRC said in a statement.

On regular days, the average daily ridership of DMRC is over 26 lakh.