Mumbai, Sep 21 (IANS): In view of the ongoing festival season, the Reliance Infrastructure Ltd.'s Mumbai Metro One will augment services by 44 daily on weekdays, an official spokesperson said here on Thursday.

From the existing 396, the services will now go up to 440 during the off-peak hours while cutting down the waiting time for a train from eight to five minutes.

Trials for increasing the trains' frequency were initiated on Wednesday and the full-fledged services - which can handle an additional load of around 66,000 commuters - will be implemented from September 24.

In the past, Mumbai Metro One Pvt. Ltd. (MMOPL) had increased its services in phases from 370 to 382 and then to 396 on weekdays and operated around 130,000 train trips in 2017-2018 with 99.9 per cent punctuality rate and 100 percent train availability.

"Considering the festive spirit, this commuter-friendly decision of MMOPL will encourage more and more people to use Mumbai Metro enabling money and time savings, besides enhancing their travel experiences," said the spokesperson.

Mumbai Metro, the city's first 11.40 km metro railway operates on the high-traffic Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar corridor, and slashed the travel time from 90 to 21 minutes.

Besides, there have been major improvements and additions to the stations layout, ticketing counters, AFC gates, baggage scanning machines, security and other features for greater commuter convenience and comforts.