Tube tales: Inspired by Delhi's success, Indian cities take the metro

With Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru and some other cities building metro networks to overcome choked roads, trains and buses, more than Rs 1 trillion was invested in metro rail projects in 2018-19.

Business Standard : India’s automobile sector is battling slowdown, but metro rail construction is booming. India has 650 km of metro rail lines, and the government aims to have another 600 km ready in various cities in the next five years.

India needs more metro services considering the fact that half of its population will be living in cities by 2030. Proposals to build 1,000 km are at various stages of consideration. Ten Indian cities have metro systems now, with more than half the length accounted for by Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR). Another 150 km of metro rail will debut in Nagpur, Bhopal, Indore, Ahmedabad and Pune.

Millions of people take the metro rail in cities, using a cheap, safe and convenient mode of transport that makes their bearable in otherwise barely livable urban India. More than Rs 1 trillion was invested in metro rail projects in 2018-19, and the amount is expected to peak to Rs 1.8 trillion by 2021, according to a report by India Infrastructure Research. All government-owned metro systems run as corporations and have devised business plans to generate non-fare box revenue to be financially viable. Some of them have used trains to target customers with advertisements and digital content through tie-ups with some of the biggest technology companies of the world.

Delhi Metro: Star of the tracks

At the start of the 21st century, the most common sight on Delhi’s roads was the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) digging up tunnels and building pillars to create a utility that would transform India’s capital from a chaotic nightmare of unruly bus drivers and roads choked by private cars to a more bearable place to live in.

DMRC started operations with a few thousand riders in 2002 and its daily ridership had touched 7 lakh a day by 2008. In 2008, there were 6 million motor vehicles on Delhi’s roads. Cut to 2018 and the number of vehicles on Delhi’s roads grew to 10 million: a majority of them two wheelers. As vehicular traffic in Delhi almost doubled, daily metro ridership grew almost three fold to touch 2.5 million a day. In June 2019, the average daily ridership on the metro was 5.5 million.

Clearly, as Delhi’s population boomed, the metro rail came as a boon for thousands of its residents. By 2021, DMRC plans to connect the whole Delhi and the wider National Capital Region (NCR)to enable 18 million people to move through 500 km of territory.