The much-trumpeted multi-modal rapid transport system (MRTS) for Delhi still remains a pipedream.
The project has been given the go-ahead both by the Union Cabinet and the Delhi government. A corporation has been formed to implement it. The funding arrangements have been completed. Yet the project is still a non-starter.
The first setback is that the project has already missed the disbursement of the first tranche of Japanese loan which was to commence from April. It has been sanctioned as usual at an extremely low rate interest.
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The Overseas Economic Co-operation Fund (OECF), which is canalising the Japanese loan which will cover 56 per cent of the first phase project cost of Rs 5,000 crore, is already disillusioned and has expressed concern over the matter to the Union government.
The project cost of Rs 5,000 has been worked out at the price level of 1996.
The first train is slated to become operational after five years and the remaining will follow suit at six-month intervals until the Phase One is completed in the stipulated nine years.
But the apprehension is that at the present rate, there will be so much escalation that the final cost might exceed Rs 10,000 crore.
The main major stumbling block to the progress of the project is said to be the absence of an executive head for the project.
The project is to be implemented by Delhi Rail Corporation Ltd ( DRCL) , which is a 50:50 joint venture of the Centre and the Delhi government, with each holding 15 per cent of the equity shares.
Under the articles of association, the chairman of the corporation has to be a non-executive authority, while the executive powers have to vested in the managing director.
Herein arises the main problem. Under the articles of association, the chairman is to be the Centre's nominee who has already been appointed and the Union urban affairs ministry's secretary is functioning as the ex-officio chairman of the corporation. The managing director, on the other hand, is to be a nominee of the Delhi government and this post is going vacant.
The rumour mills have it that a tussle has ensued between the Delhi government and the Union government over the choice of the incumbent. The Indian Railways recommended the name of the managing director of Rail India Technical and Economic Services, B I Singal, but the BJP government in Delhi is said to be inclined to appoint E Sridharan, chairman of the Konkan Railway Corporation in Maharashtra.
The result is that the delay in the decision making is denying the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation an executive head who alone can take the executive decisions on such sensitive matters as drawal of loan and its utilisation.
Doubtless, the national capital territory direly needs an alternative and effective traffic mode. It is said to be the only city in the world with a population of 11 million which depends for transport almost entirely on buses which are over-crowded to boot.
This has caused proliferation of personalised vehicles so much so that New Delhi has more registered vehicles than the total number of such vehicles in Mumbai, Calcutta and Chennai put together early 70 per cent of these vehicles in Delhi are two-wheelers.
Hence the congestion and accidents, not to forget the pollution.
Estimates have it that to meet the transport demand by 2001, the number of buses will have to be at least doubled and personalised vehicles have to grow three-fold. The level of pollution and congestion that this will cause is anybody's guess.
If the project comes up fast, it will have in the first phase a length of 11 kms of underground metro corridor along with 44.3 km, of elevated/surface rail corridors with 45 stations.
It will require the acquisition of about 340 hectares of land of which 58 per cent will be government land, 39 per cent private and agricultural land, and three per cent private urban land.
All that is visible now of the work going on, according to sources, is the notices issued for land acquisition and some action has been initiated on rehabilitation as and when such an occasion arises.
Incidentally, another much-touted mass transport system for Delhi envisaging an elaborate, still-propped tramway system, has already flopped, having been given a quiet burial.
The present one, therefore, is the only hope for the Delhites notwithstanding the question mark on whether it is going to come up at all.