PUNE: As many as 5.9 lakh commuters travelled in Metro trains on the last day of Ganeshotsav as the services witnessed a heavy rush throughout the day on Saturday until late at night.The Maha Metro operated the trains uninterrupted for 41 hours starting from Saturday at 6am.The immersion day ridership also emerged as the highest single-day ridership so far since the inception of Metro services.The maximum footfall of over 65,000 was recorded at Mandai station, followed by Deccan Gymkhana, from where 64,000 commuters travelled.Passengers at Mandai and Deccan Gymkhana stations said they faced delays while entering and exiting the stations due to the huge rush. Metro authorities, however, claimed that additional manpower was deployed to handle the crowd. No untoward incident was reported at the stations.Dinesh Lonkar, who travelled with his friends on the Metro on immersion day, said the trains were extremely crowded despite the high frequency.”We travelled from Vanaz to PMC station, and we hardly found a space to sit. The Metro authorities should continue to operate with increased frequency,” he said.According to Maha Metro, as many as866 trips were operated during the span of 24 hours.“The frequency was increased on some sections, such as Civil Court to Swargate, to manage the crowd. The frequency was also increased on the Civil Court to Vanaz section during peak hours. We had appealed to people tomake use of online payment modes to purchase the journey tickets. In the last five days of Ganeshotsav, the Metro services consistently recorded over 3 lakh daily ridership, and on the last day, it increased to 6 lakh,” said a Maha Metro official.Shravan Hardikar, MD, Maha Metro, said a significant number of commuters utilised Metro services during Ganeshotsav.“The Metro’s daily footfall has also increased in the last few months. Maha Metro is looking forward to enhancing the Metro services to benefit people,” he said.Last weekend, over 6.9 lakh commuters had travelled by Metro, with the Mandai and PMC stations recording the maximum rush. As many as 3.3 lakh commuters had used the service on Sunday and 3.6 lakh on Saturday during Ganeshotsav.
