Pune Metro commuters are urging authorities to extend metro service hours till midnight to accommodate those working late shifts and ensure that they can reach home conveniently. At present, the metro operates from 6am to 11pm.
"The metro is getting an impressive number of passengers even at 11 pm. This is really encouraging and strengthens the need for metro service till 12 am," a commuter wrote on X (formerly Twitter), sharing pictures of the crowd at night.
However, speaking to The Free Press Journal, Hemant Sonawane, Executive Director (Administration and Public Relations), Maha Metro, said no such plans are in the offing currently.
"As of now, we cannot stretch the metro timing post 11pm because when we did a footfall analysis, the ridership was too low between 6am to 7am and 10pm to 11pm. The footfall during these hours is in the range of 2,000 to 5,000," Sonawane said.
"Besides, the maintenance charge of the metro is high. It will lead to a loss if we increase the trips in the absence of enough footfall. However, in the future, if the ridership increases, authorities will decide to increase the timings," he added.
Meanwhile, the metro will see an increase in frequency on both routes soon. Currently, the trains run every seven minutes, which is expected to change to five minutes over the next couple of months.
