Delhi does not respect women which is why the idea of reserving seat for women came into force, said Delhi Metro chief E. Sreedharan.
In an interview to a news agency, the Metro Man said that Delhi is one city where people don’t respect women. However, such measures may not be required in other Indian metros and Metro trains there may not need to have women only coaches. The Delhi Metro reserved first coach of every train exclusively for women from October 2, 2010.
The Metro chief said that people resisted the move initially but the situation improved when cops got tough with errant male passengers. The situation will further improve after the introduction of six-coach trains, he said. Each coach of Metro train can accommodate 361 commuters (43 seating and 318 standing). At present, a four-coach train has a carrying capacity of 1,200-1,500 passengers.
The six-coach trains will be able to accommodate about 1,800-2,100 people per trip.
At present, Delhi Metro has an average daily ridership of 1.5 million, nearly one-fourth of whom are women. Delhi Metro has 188 trains, which will be increased to 208 by the year-end.