New Delhi: Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has ever recorded in its history of 81,87,674 passenger trips on August 8, 2025, fuelled by the festive rush of Raksha Bandhan. The figure just surpasses the previous record of 78.7 lakh passenger journeys that was made on November 18, which was a day of extreme air pollution with an AQI of 494.
The busiest lines / corridors which were impacted by surge are Yellow, Blue and Violet lines that connect major hubs like Samaypur Badli to HUDA City Centre, Dwarka to Noida, and Kashmere Gate to Raja Nahar Singh. Stations such as Rajiv Chowk and Kashmere Gate were extremely crowded, with the commuters complaining that they were facing a congested platform and coaches during peak hours.
DMRC operated 92 additional trips on August 8 and implemented 455 additional trips on August 9 to satisfy the demand of the season of travel. However, through these actions, there were still a number of commuters who took to the social media to express mixed feelings. Some have celebrated the speed of DMRC operations growth, tweeting, “Kudos to @OfficialDMRC, but the rush was unbelievable on the Yellow Line!”, but others have been frustrated by long queues, and overcrowding, with one user calling the Violet Line, a nightmare.
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DMRC normally records increased ridership during Raksha Bandhan. The previous year it had 77.5 lakh passenger trips on August 25, the next day after the festival. The network has set a ridership record 17 times in one month (August 12 to September 12) during the 2024 monsoon, amid commuters opting to use metro to avoid road congestions and delays due to rains.
DMRC defines a passenger journey as the number of metro lines that a passenger traversed to make his or her trip and that includes all the tickets sold and metro card swipes at the exit gates. This measure superseded the previous ridership computational method in 2019.
The reason the Metro is the lifeline of the Capital.
Principal Executive Director, Corporate Communications, DMRC, Anuj Dayal, said the punctuality, reliability and comfort of the network, including in humidity and rain, is what makes it the most reliable mode of public transport in the Delhi-NCR. It has 29 interchange stations that increase connectivity within the area, as it allows one to travel to just about any area in the city.
DMRC also launched several digital ticketing channels such as DMRC Saarthi App, One Delhi App, WhatsApp, Paytm, and Amazon Pay to minimize the queues in stations.
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