Centre, DMRC rubbish CSE report

The Centre and the DMRC Wednesday rubbished as "misleading and falsification of facts" a report by environment think tank CSE which claimed ridership of Delhi metro is falling and is the second most unaffordable metro system in the world, saying the study compares "very selected metros".

While Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri contended that the DMRC's passenger flow has gone up, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) MD Mangu Singh cited the examples of other metros like Lucknow, Chennal and Kochi that have higher fares than Delhi Metro.

Reacting to the report, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said he is "very sad" that such an important means of transport has become out of reach of common man while asserting that all those who have given up metro are now contributing to Delhi's pollution by using road transport.

 

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), in its report, said DMRC is the second most unaffordable metro system in the world in terms of percentage of income spent for using it while asserting the Delhi Metro has received nearly 32 per cent less than the number of daily passengers it had hoped to serve this year.

At an event, Puri said if there is a possibility that metro ridership is not realising its "potential", it is because Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is not giving approval for Metro's phase-IV project.

"I have a story going on today that metro ridership has fallen, which is complete falsification of facts. Metro ridership has gone up to two lakh and it is going up. If there is a possibility that metro ridership is not realising its potential, it is because Arvind Kejriwal is not giving me approval for Metro phase-IV etc," Puri said.

The Union housing and urban affairs minister reiterated that if the Delhi government does not come on board for Metro's phase-IV project, his ministry will find a way.

In May this year, Puri had said the Centre would take a decision on the execution of the metro's much-awaited phase-IV project if something was "lacking" on the Delhi government's side.

In February 2016, the AAP government had given its in-principle approval for the construction work of the phase IV project, but the Delhi Cabinet is yet to take final decision on it.

Meanwhile, the DMRC called the study "misleading and not based on facts and data".

"This study is conveniently comparing DMRC with very selected metros across the world. Why don't you compare with big metros," said DMRC MD Mangu Singh.

The other cities considered in the report were - Buenos Aires, Cairo, Hanoi, Jakarta, Kiev, Manila, Mexico City and Mumbai.

"Metros like Jakarta do not exist yet. It will come into operation in January 2019. So how could there be comparison with a metro that isn't operational," Singh said.

Singh said that there are other metros like Lucknow, Chennal and Kochi within the country that have higher fares than Delhi Metro so how can it be second most unaffordable metro in the world.

He also refuted the CSE's claim that Delhi Metro has received nearly 32 per cent less than the number of daily passengers it had hoped to serve this year, saying its earlier projection included phase 3 which has not become operational yet.

"It is seen from the report that ridership of DMRC is 29 lakh as against project ridership of 39 lakh. The 39.5 lakhs ridership is projected after completion of Phase -3. The Phase -3 is yet to be fully made operational and stabilized. Therefore, any such comparison at this stage, is only misleading and unrealistic," said Singh.

Secondly, the report claims that 22 per cent of a commuter's income is going for transportation in the lower income group. That is also an extreme case, he said.

"As per our exact figure, a total of Rs 268.84 crore was the actual fare earned in July and the total number of passengers who travelled on the metro were 7.79 crore. So the revenue per trip comes to Rs 34.50. His expenditure will be Rs 1,518 per month and average per capita income in Delhi is Rs 27,424, according to economic survey done by Delhi govt," the DMRC Chief said.

So based on these calculations, 5.53 per cent and not 22 per cent of income of a commuter is spent while travelling on metro, Singh said.

However, Anumita Roy Chowdhury, the Executive Director of the research and advocacy group, clarified that they were talking about the overall picture of the transport system in the report.

"Our public transport system is not functioning optimally and there needs to be a strategy to increase the ridership so that people's dependence on their personal vehicle reduces," she said, adding that they took other cities into consideration too.

The CSE in a report on Tuesday said that it has found that after the fare hike last year, Delhi metro has become the second-most unaffordable service in the world among the cities that charge less than half a US dollar for a trip.

Of nine metropolitan cities across the world where the cost for a 10-km trip is less than half-a-US dollar, the Delhi Metro remains the second-most unaffordable system in terms of percentage of income spent for using it, the CSE study claimed.