After Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the final phase of Mumbai's underground metro, the Aqua Line service is fully operational from Aarey JVLR to Cuffe Parade from October 9.
Owing to this, ridership on Metro 3 nearly tripled to 1,56,456 as of 9 pm on the first day of its entire route, taking the metro line into the heart of south Mumbai.
The Metro 3 operations will run between 5:55 am until 10:30 pm.
Until Wednesday, October 8, when the line was operational only from Aarey-JVLR to Acharya Atre Chowk, the average daily ridership was 52,500, according to the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MMRCL).
A day later, ridership had already touched 97,846 by 6 pm, as per HT. This means over 58,000 people took the line between 6 pm and 9 pm, the evening rush hours. The metro operates from 5.55 am to 10.30 pm daily.
However, it is pertinent to note that long queues were formed to buy tickets. The commuters of Metro 3 (Aqua line) complained lack of access to digital ticketing solutions, including Mumbai One, citing a mobile network blackout across the newly opened stretch. The issue affected passengers across all major telecom networks, rendering them unable to make calls, access mobile data or use UPI-based payment apps.
Meanwhile, 'Mumbai One', the new mobile app offering tickets for various public transport tickets in the city under one roof, witnessed an overwhelming response on its first day, with around 32,000 users downloading the app by 5.30 pm on Thursday.