Pune Metro sees 24% boost in ridership in July
From September 2024 to May 2025, average daily rides on the two metro lines ranged from 1.44 lakh to 1.60 lakh. June was the first time the average daily rides breached the 1.7 lakh mark and in July, the figure further shot up to over 1.92 lakh.
The Aqua Line (Vanaz-Ramwadi) had the larger share of passengers at over 1.08 lakh average daily rides in June, while the Purple Line (PCMC-Swargate) had 83,459 average daily rides.
Dr Hemant Sonawane, Executive Director (Administration & Public Relations) at Maha Metro, said, 'Full 33 kms are operational now and we are increasing multimodal integration as well. Due to the monsoon season, people are using their two wheelers less and opting to use the metro. A culmination of these factors might have led to the increase in ridership.'
Sonawane also assured that the train frequency will be increased to six minutes from the current seven minutes during peak hours within the next three to four months. This reduction will be the first step towards increasing the frequency to five minutes in the future.
Even with the increased ridership, the Pune Metro is nowhere close to the daily rides estimated in the system's Detailed Project Report. The DPR had estimated an average daily ridership of 6 lakh passengers, three times greater than the current ridership.
Soham is a Correspondent with the Indian Express in Pune.
A journalism graduate, he was a fact-checker before joining the Express. Soham currently covers education and is also interested in civic issues, health, human rights, and politics. ... Read More
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