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.

Delhi Metro 'second-most unaffordable' transport network in world: CSE

Commuters have to spend, on an average, 9% and 14% to use an AC bus or the Metro, respectively.

Delhi Metro that faced flak from the commuters and the Kejriwal government over fare rise last year, is the world’s second most expensive mass rapid transit system, says a report by the Centre for Science and Environment.

CSE did an analysis of what it takes to keep public transport and overall journey costs affordable for all city dwellers while modernising the systems. This is needed to ensure that new investments in modern systems – be it the Metro, or bus rapid transit systems, or modern and electric buses – can lead to an effective shift in ridership from personal vehicles to public transport in all Indian cities.

Delhi Metro saw a sudden drop in ridership following the fare hike (in May and October 2017) – approximately by 420,000 passengers by 2018, the report said.

Even though the report said that there was no absolute threshold to define affordability of public transport but internationally it is generally accepted that about 10-15 per cent of household income can be spent on transport as the upper cap for a system to be accepted as affordable.

For poor people, higher spending on transport leads to lower spending on housing, health and education, which therefore spirals them into greater poverty.

If one were to consider the middle-income groups (30 per cent of the population approximately), which are just above the lower income classes, one finds that after accounting for integrated journey cost (at a conservative estimate of 25 per cent of the system cost – a person using a Metro is likely to spend at least 25 per cent of the cost paid to the Metro to get to the station and then reach the destination from the station), AC buses and Metro are almost unaffordable for them too.

They have to spend, on an average, 9 per cent and 14 per cent to use an AC bus or the Metro, respectively.

It was also observed that it was ironical that when travel demand was exploding in cities the transport service providers were facing a crisis.

“Lack of funding and pricing strategy for integrated public transport systems and services are blocking progress. Public transport ridership is sliding in cities and service providers are running into losses, thereby rendering the services unaffordable,” the report observed.

No cohesive strategy is in place to reverse this trend, it added...Read More

Article Source BS