Delhi Metro

With the new system, which is also used in Tokyo and London, a commuter’s presence will be recorded on each line she uses to reach her destination.

The system will work on the “reverse journey planner” mode, where the traffic will be assessed based on the route and the time taken for the travel.

While trying out the new system, the Metro has already found gaps in its data and discovered that there is a big difference between the ridership figures recorded earlier by the Metro and the actual utilisation of the lines.

For instance, in the Botanical Garden stretch (Blue Line), it was observed that the average ridership figures were recorded as 40,000. However, when the utilisation of the line was assessed, it was observed that around 95,000 people were using it.

Similarly, in the Azadpur line (Pink and Yellow line intersection), the actual utilisation was found to be around 80,000 as against the 20,000 ridership average.

Singh said that the logistics were run on a pilot basis for several months and the results were matched with the passengers’ commute before this centralised monitoring software was rolled out.

Knowing the commuter movement pattern will also help the Metro improve facilities and will also be useful in planning routes in the upcoming sections of the Metro, Singh said. Once the data is procured, it will also give a better picture of crowding points and capacity can be increased there accordingly.

Prabuddha Sengupta, senior researcher of multi-modal systems of the world at IIT Delhi, said the collection of data becomes the first and the most important step in improving any service, and the more specific it is, the better are the results.

“It is yet to be seen how the traffic analysis of the Delhi Metro works, but in cities such as Tokyo, where it is already being done, data is used as a tool for planning, integration and expansion of the network. For example, if there is more crowd recorded in a particular station then the feeder services outside it will also be made more frequency accordingly for the ease of commuters,” he said.

With the opening of the new lines under Phase-iii, the interchange facilities in the Metro have increased to 16 from 11 under phase-ii. This increases the relevance of having a linewise breakup of traffic.

As per the latest data by the DMRC, the average daily ridership of the Metro is 2.76 million. This figure had registered a dip after two fare revisions by the Metro in 2017. Uttarakhand in 2016, leading to the reinstatement of the Congress party government led by Harish Rawat. The Congress has made a similar allegation.

On Wednesday, the law minister said the charges levelled against the government by the “Congress party in particular and others in general” that justice Joseph’s appointment had been stalled because of his Uttarakhand verdict amounted to “sponsored allegations.”

“I wish to deny with all authority at my command. It has nothing to do with that at all,” Prasad told reporters at a cabinet briefing. Prasad noted that a Bharatiya Janata Party government was elected with a threefourths majority last year. And justice Joseph’s order was confirmed by justice J S Khehar of the Supreme Court, who had also set aside the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act ; yet Khehar became CJI under the NDA government, Prasad said.

The law minister said the right of the government to seek a reconsideration of proposals made by the collegium is granted to it by the Supreme Court judgements of 1993, 1998 and 2015 relating to the collegium system.

On former CJI RM Lodha’s remarks that the independence of the judiciary is under challenge and should be “non-negotiable,” Prasad said that he did not want to comment on observations made by a retired judge.

“I always felt that independence of judiciary is non-negotiable and it is for the CJI, who is the leader of the court, to take them forward. Only one thing I would like to observe is the commitment of this government for the independence of the judiciary and respect for the institution of judiciary and the judges is complete and uncompromising,” he added. Thakur expressed shock and grief over the killing and warned that such incidents would not be tolerated.

On Wednesday, uneasy calm prevailed in Kasauli as the demolition drive restarted in the afternoon. Top officials of the town and country planning department, accompanied by police personnel, carried out the demolitions.