Passengers in a survey have said Delhi Metro was the most comfortable mode of commuting in the city.
The survey covered more than 85,000 respondents during the ’Customer Satisfaction Week’ from July 15 to 21 and again on July 26, at the top 22 Metro stations having the highest ridership/footfalls.
The commuters who took the survey have rated DMRC highest in comfort with 7.42 out of 10 and customer care at 7.38, followed by information dissemination at 7.30.
Surveys were done on eight crucial aspects of Metro operations and each aspect was made the theme of the survey for one day of the week each.
The topics which were covered were availability, accessibility, information, quality of service, customer care, comfort, security & safety and Commuter related aspect outside the metro station.
Many subheads were created for each of these aspects and the commuters were asked to rate the services on the scale — excellent, very good, good, satisfactory and need improvement.
Some of major subheads were— modes of access to DMRC system, first and last train timings, frequency of trains, facilities for the disabled and elderly, buying tokens and smart cards, adequacy of lifts and escalators, availability of parking, among others.
“The findings of the survey reveal that the commuters are largely satisfied with the quality of service offered to them and have rated Delhi Metro as VERY GOOD.
“However, DMRC will not rest on such laurels and will continue to serve its public with utmost dedication and commitment and bringing out necessary changes/improvements whenever required,” a DMRC spokesperson said.
However, areas where the public felt that further improvement could be done pertains to quality of smart cards and tokens, condition of roads, drains and pavements, encroachment and tackling beggar nuisance outside metro stations.
Among the respondents, 75.8 per cent were males while the rest were females.
Office going professionals (service sector) and students formed a bulk of the ridership as they comprised 62. 5 and 30. 4 percent of the total respondents respectively.
Commuters belonging to the age group between 19 and 30 years formed the majority among the respondents at 68.6 per cent, while those belonging to the age group between 31 and 50 years were the second biggest group with 21.8 per cent.
Presently the ridership of the Delhi Metro has reached above 23 lakhs.
Among the metro stations where the survey was conducted include Rajiv Chowk, Chandni Chowk, New Delhi, Karol Bagh, Laxmi Nagar, Uttam Nagar East, Saket, Vaishali, HUDA City Centre, Shahadra, MG Road, G T B Nagar, Hauz Khas, Dilshad Garden, Noida City Centre, Central Secretariat.