NEW DELHI:

witnessed a massive dip of more than three lakh in daily ridership in October this year as compared with the previous month. This is the steepest month-to-month fall in Metro ridership ever and appears to be linked to the fare hike in October.

On October 10, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (

) implemented the second phase of fare hike after the first round of hike in May this year. Daily ridership had also fallen in June 2017 by nearly 1.5 lakh when compared with June 2016, and by around 0.8 lakh over the previous month.

DMRC, however, claimed that the dip in ridership in October was due to other factors such as the numerous festivals and holidays during the month. It said daily ridership had gone up in November, though it didn't share the figures.

Metro's average daily ridership figure of 24.2 lakh in October was 3.2 lakh less than the September figure of 27.4 lakh, a drop of nearly 12%.

Fares have gone up by nearly 100% across most slabs. The pre-May fare range was Rs 8 to Rs 30 while current fares range from Rs 10 to Rs 60.

The Delhi Metro, which has seen its ridership spiral with the opening of each new corridor since it started operations in 2002, first saw a dip in ridership in May this year, after the first fare hike. The dip in the month of October is its steepest ever.

Denying a link with the raised fares, the DMRC spokesperson said, "The drop in the ridership in October 2017 is not solely attributable to increase in fares as there are otherwise monthly variations through the year. In October, there were five Sundays as compared to four in September. Ridership on Sundays is around 60-70% of that on working days. Ridership depends on multiple factors such as seasons, vacations, holidays, festivals etc," the spokesperson said.

He said October had started with a long weekend due to Dussehra falling on September 30, followed by Gandhi Jayanti on October 2. "The month also witnessed extended weekends and holidays due to festivals of Diwali, Chhath Pooja, Bhai Duj, Goverdhan etc," he said.

"The ridership after the fare revision for many days was actually higher than the ridership before the fare revision," he claimed. "In the year 2016, too, ridership dipped by 1.3 lakh from September to October in spite of no change in the fare structure. Ridership in November 2017 has shown a rising trend."

"In any case, the fare revision has been done on the recommendations of the fourth fare fixation committee, which is a statutory body under the Delhi Metro (O&M) Act 2002," he said.

Delhi chief minister

, who has been vehemently opposing the second fare hike of Delhi Metro, tweeted, "That many passengers have taken to other means of tpt, thus increasing pollution n congestion on roads. Metro fare hike has not benefitted anyone (sic)."

The Aam Aadmi Party government had confronted the Centre over implementation of the second fare hike. The hike eventually went through, with the Centre arguing that the recommendations of the fare fixation committee can't be overturned or deferred.

"Delhi Metro should even now give up its rigidness and roll back its fares with first concrete evidence showing it lost three lakh commuters on the very first day it implemented the unjustified hike," Nagendar Sharma, media advisor to the chief minister tweeted.

Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken said both the Centre and Delhi government were responsible for the fare hike, which he said had resulted in the dip in footfalls. He tweeted that the Delhi chief secretary was part of the fare fixation committee. The tenure of DMRC managing director Mangu Singh was extended by four years during

government's rule and the committee report had come on September 6, 2016. Maken asked, was the Kejriwal government sleeping for a year?