‘Burn calories, not electricity!’: Harsh Goenka cheers Delhi Metro’s ‘clever hack’ of writing calorie count on staircase

RPG Enterprises' Chairman Harsh Goenka on Monday applauded Delhi Metro's initiative to promote fitness by mentioning the calorie count on the staircase, a move to encourage people to walk more instead of taking an escalator. 

In a post on social media platform X, Harsh Goenka highlighted the message to burn calories instead of electricity by not taking the escalator when using the Metro to travel. He also noted that the escalator queues are getting longer despite telling people how many calories they are losing, which shows the fitness habits of people in India.

“Delhi Metro’s got a clever hack—burn calories, not electricity! Each step tells you how much you’re shedding, yet the escalator queue is still longer than Monday mornings,” said Harsh Goenka in his post on platform X. 

Netizens react

People on the social media platform reacted to Harsh Goenka's post, calling this initiative a good encouragement for people to walk more instead of using electric escalators. 

“This is good message to encourage people to walk,” said a social media user named Anshul Garg, responding to Goenka's post.

“Each passenger taking stairs= Passenger fitness+ Electricity Bill cost saving,” said Nithin Shankar, highlighting the benefits of metro travellers opting for stairs instead of escalators.

Many people also addressed the social issue that nowadays, people do not want to burn calories and are falling prey to obesity. Another user, Siva Kumar, said, “Thats The Real Picture... No'body' wants to Burn calories... But only to ‘Lift’ their Kilos.”

A few people who responded to Goenka's post suggested that Delhi Metro implement the word calories instead of kilocalories to widen the reach of the message.

“If they had expressed it in ‘calories’ instead of ‘kilocalories’, the impact would have optically looked much better,” said a social media user named BongBayGeek.

Some people also focused on the need to rush to work, and one of them, a social media user named writerMBA4U, said that the idea is good, but it can only work when there is no requirement to rush to work from home.

“The idea is good but it works when there is no mad rush to work.....maybe,” the person said.