NMRC Feeder Buses: Creating New Milestones

Noida, June 06, 2019

Noida Metro Rail Corporation’s (NMRC) Feeder Bus Service has been creating new milestones with each passing day. The ridership of the feeder bus service reached 11, 797 on Monday i.2 03.06.2019 and revenue earned was Rs. 4, 30, 307 on the same day.

The daily ridership of the Feeder Bus Service was around 10, 000 passengers and the revenue earned was around 4 lakh.

The NMRC City Bus service has been operational since 2016, but was deployed as feeder for the Aqua Line only in March 2019. Since then, NMRC has been taking various initiatives to popularise the service amongst the people of Noida and Greater Noida and commuters using the Aqua Line. Currently NMRC is operating 11 feeder bus routes with a fleet of 50 buses.

The Feeder Bus team conducted surveys and interacted with local Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs), Corporate Offices and Educational Institutions in the catchment area near the alignment of the Aqua Line and based on the suggestions and feedback of these sectors, deigned the routes and time table of the feeder buses so that it benefits the maximum number of people and provides last mile connectivity to current and prospective commuters of the Aqua Line.

Since a lot of people from Noida and Greater Noida travel to Delhi and vice versa, the feeder bus routes have also been designed to provide direct connectivity to the Blue Line of DMRC. In fact, 06 routes out of 11 provide direct connectivity to various areas of Noida and Greater Noida with Botanical Garden Metro Station of DMRC (Blue / Magenta Line). This has provided a major boost to the ridership of the Aqua Line as well.

In order to popularise the routes amongst the general public, NMRC has distributed pamphlets in which details of all the routes are given alongwith timings, frequency, fares and stoppages of the Bus route. All the terminal stops of the Feeder Buses also have all this information displayed for the information of the passengers.

All the buses are air conditioned and equipped with the state of the art GPS system. All the buses also have CCTV cameras installed inside them for the safety of the passengers, especially women. There is a panic button installed near every seat which is directly connected to the Central Control Room (CCR) to be used by passengers in case of any kind of emergency for immediately stopping the bus.

The fare chart is displayed in the buses alongwith the helpline number (1800-1800-555) and what’s app number (9868394969) for the assistance of the passengers in case of any inconvenience. The call is directly connected to the CCR in the Depot and the issue is resolved within 24 hours.

NMRC’s top management takes a review meeting every week to discuss and take decisions regarding improvement of services and other facilities for the passengers.

NMRC is also in the process of integrating the NMRC Smart Card with ticketing system of the Feeder Buses so that a common card can be used by commuters for both the Metro and the buses. The trial and testing for the same is underway and NMRC plans to implement it soon.

The Feeder Bus service is like a life line for the Aqua Line as it plays an important role in providing the much needed safe and secure last mile connectivity and reposes the faith of the people of Noida and Greater Noida in the public transport system.

P. D. Upadhyay
Executive Director
N. M. R. C