Delhi's airport metro increases peak hour frequency

New Delhi: The high-speed Delhi Airport Express Metro will now run every 12 minutes, for three hours in the morning and evening, starting from Monday. Announcing the new system, the Delhi Airport Metro Express (DAME) today said trains would now ferry commuters at an interval of 12 minutes between 8 AM and 11 AM and between 5 PM and 8 PM.

The trains will run every 15 minutes during non peak hours. "Based on our internal study and keeping the comfort of airport-bound passengers and office goers in mind, we increased the train frequency to every 12 minutes, during morning and evening peak hours," said Anil P Gupta, President of Reliance Infrastructure which operates the line."Some of our recent commuter centric initiatives like opening of Dhaula Kuan and Aerocity stations, increase in train frequency and opening of passenger check-in facilities have increased the ridership along the line and we need to cater to their convenience," he said.Gupta added that one more train has been deployed on the line, creating a 25 per cent additional passenger carrying capacity during peak hours. He said three more trains would be kept on standby for the convenience of commuters and if required, could be deployed anytime.According to Metro officials, the number of commuters using the line has skyrocketed to 18,000 from the 4000 that used since it first became operational.