A little less than a decade after the Delhi metro system came into operation, another mega city, Bangalore, gets rolling on the latest in urban transport. The past decade has seen rapid expansion of the metro network, but many other cities like Patna, Ludhiana, Kochi and Pune wait in queue for a more comfortable city travel experience.
Experts estimate the investment in metro systems would reach as much as Rs 80,000 crore in two years. The figure will be much more, once metro plans take off in 20 other cities.
Though Kolkata was the first Indian city to have a metro system in place in 1984, Delhi became the trendsetter in 2002. The reasons were not far to see — timely implementation and use of the latest technology. “Metro systems have the tendency of breeding success after the first one,” said Parvesh Minocha, managing director, Feedback Infrastructure.
According to Minocha, Indian cities should have embarked on metro construction earlier, though the performance has been a mixed bag. If Delhi was a success, construction of Hyderabad, Bangalore and Mumbai metros has gone off the track. “They started on time, but have been behind schedule. Still, given the general resource crunch which the government faces and the choice it has to make between social and infrastructure spending, the performance has been satisfactory,” he said.
In Delhi, government-owned Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, under the stewardship of E Sreedharan, constructed around 190 km of the network — 146.23 km elevated and 42.84 km underground — in the first and second phases, which cost Rs 30,571 crore. The construction took around 12 years. The first phase was completed in seven years and nine months, against the initial target of 10 years. Work on the third phase, which is inclusive of two lines, started this August and is expected to be completed by 2016. The tendering process for Phase-III corridors is going on. The estimated project cost for this phase is Rs 35,000 crore.
Delhi also boasts of having the country’s first airport metro link and also the first private metro line. Reliance Infrastructure constructed the 23-km link at a cost Rs 5,800 crore. It is also the operator of the line. Though it was scheduled to start operation during the last year’s Commonwealth Games, clearances and coordination relating to security and other issues delayed it. Reliance Infrastructure, however, is going off schedule when it comes to the Mumbai metro. “Mumbai has complex problems of shifting utilities, but it was worth experimenting with the public-private partnership (PPP) mode there,” said Abhaya Agarwal, executive director and leader, PPP practice, Ernst & Young.
The examples of Hyderabad, Bangalore and Mumbai metros put a question mark on the wisdom of having PPP in metros. Both Agarwal and Minocha say the argument against metros built through PPP may not be valid, since metro systems are not viable in themselves. “PPP does not mean the project has to be sustainable. It is just a way of implementing project,” said Agarwal.
| THE JOURNEY SO FAR | |||||
| Metro | Year of start | Estimated cost (Rs crore) | Length | Cost/Km (in Rs crore) | Fare (Range) |
| Kolkata | 6-Jun | 4,676 (for the planned 14.67 km) | Existing =39.67 km | 318.74 (extension) | Min 4 and max 10 or 12 |
| Delhi | 2002.00 | 30,000 for phase I & II 35,000 for phase III | Phase I and II=190 km Plan for Phase III=120 km | 209.67 (overall) | Min 8 and max 30 |
| Delhi metro express link | Feb,2011 | 5700.00 | 22.7 km | 251.1 | 20-100 |
| Bangalore | Oct,2011 | 11,609 | 6.7 km commissioned of the Planned 42.36 km | 274.05 | 15-Oct |
| Mumbai | 2012 | 13,856 | Plan for 43.64 km | 317.5 | Yet to be decided |
| Chennai | 2014-15 | 14,600 | 45 kms | 324.44 | Yet to be decided |
| Source: Government data | |||||
Any project that requires huge investment is first done by the public sector to create capacity that helps in future. So, the Kolkata metro that was constructed by the Indian Railways itself and then the Delhi Metro was done by a joint venture of state and central governments.
When it comes to private metros, there are three doubts. “First, whether it will be able to manage shifting of various utilities resulting in delays. Second, whether a private project will be more expensive. Third, whether it should be given land for development,” pointed out Agarwal. Nonetheless, if cities have to expand and transport efficiency does not bring down the travelling time, then the expansion itself becomes unviable.
