This story is from October 23, 2021

Footfall up four-fold this year, Delhi Metro still set to lose Rs 1,500 crore

When the Delhi Metro services resumed in September last year after being shut down for 169 days due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the capital’s transport lifeline logged 6-7 lakh passenger trips a day.
Footfall up four-fold this year, Delhi Metro still set to lose Rs 1,500 crore
The pandemic resulted in DMRC’s revenue nosediving from Rs 3,897.3 crore in 2019-20 to Rs 895.9 crore in 2020-21. (File photo)
NEW DELHI: When the Delhi Metro services resumed in September last year after being shut down for 169 days due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the capital’s transport lifeline logged 6-7 lakh passenger trips a day.
In September this year, the average passenger trips per day had gone up to 28 lakh. However, despite the fourfold increase in ridership, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation is staring at an estimated loss of Rs 1,500 crore in the 2021-22 financial year.
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The pandemic resulted in DMRC’s revenue nosediving from Rs 3,897.3 crore in 2019-20 to Rs 895.9 crore in 2020-21.
While DMRC had a surplus of Rs 758 crore in 2019-20, the last fiscal saw the train company recording a deficit of Rs 1,784.9 crore. The first quarter of the current financial year coincided with the second wave of Covid-19 cases and saw train services being closed to the general public for 48 days.
With metro trains allowed only 50% of its seating capacity and no standing passengers, DMRC ended up spending more on operations than earning. From July-end, however, after 100% seating with no standing passengers was permitted, there was some respite for both commuters and DMRC. That, however, wasn’t enough to pull DMRC into the black.
“We haven’t yet returned to a position where we can meet all our expenditures but the gap is reducing by the day,” DMRC managing director Mangu Singh told TOI. “We had a loss of around Rs 1,700 crore last year and expect a loss of another Rs 1,500 crore this year.” He said that DMRC would have ended up with a bigger loss of Rs 2,100 last year but for its efforts to improve revenue and curtail expenditure without affecting operations and safety-related expenses.

“Many more people want to use the metro now, but we are unable to carry them because of the restrictions,” Singh said. “After the pandemic is over, the metro system will certainly be the preferred option because of reliability, comfort and ease of transportation.” He hoped that commuters forced to use private vehicles at the moment will return to the metro.
Singh said that by the end of March 2022, DMRC would have run up a total deficit of Rs 3,200 crore. This issue was taken up in the recent meeting of the company’s board of directors. “The board has agreed to approach all our stakeholders to share this loss,” he said. “We have apportioned the entire losses of Rs 3,200 crore year-wise, on a pro-rata basis and as per the principle set down by the sanction order of the project, among the four governments — the Centre and the state governments of Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. We have written to them to support us.”
Apart from the earnings from the fare, the revenue earned by DMRC through leasing of retail areas, parking lots and commercial complexes were also hit when Covid curtailed train services. Singh said that DMRC, however, ensured that those who had rented spaces didn't ‘run away’ even when the metro services were shut down.
“We did not ask for rents for the affected period. Once the train services restarted, we gave the lessors the facility to adjust their rental based on the footfall in a transparent manner,” the DMRC managing director said, adding that if the footfall was half or a third of the normal, the rental was accordingly adjusted. Singh said that these measures have helped and clients have retained their leased space. Even if the rental income was lower than in pre-Covid times, DMRC was still earning rent income, he said.
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