Carriage of convenience
Delhi Metro’s popularity has increased since it started running the first stretch between Shahdara and Tis Hazari in December 2002.
From 20,000 commuters a day to the one million daily commuters now.
And the number is set to double by the end of the year, said Anuj Dayal, chief public relations officer of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (dmrc), which is constructing and operating the capital’s Metro.
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The Metro is more convenient. My joint pains have eased because I don’t have to sit in a car for three-and-a-half hours. I reach my workplace in 45 minutes. |
- SANTOSH YADAV |
A large number of daily commuters are leaving personal vehicles home to ride the Metro. The Central Road Research Institute (crri), a Council of Scientific and Industrial Research laboratory, recorded this switch from private vehicles to the mass transport system following two surveys—the first in 2007 and then 2009.
Researchers interviewed over 12,000 Metro commuters between the Shahdara and Tis Hazari corridor. Of all the two-wheeler owners interviewed in 2007, a third were found to be Metro users. In 2009, when the survey was repeated, the figure had doubled to two-thirds two-wheeler owners. This study found a similar switch among car owners. If the 2007 survey recorded half the car owners interviewed were using the Metro, by 2009 two-thirds of the car owners were daily commuters.
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Earlier, we spent Rs 7,500 a month on petrol and Rs 5,000 a month on the driver’s salary. Now my mother and I together spend Rs 3,000 on fares and Rs 400 on parking. |
- MISHA YADAV |
What led them to make this switch? Traffic jams mostly, the survey found; 23.27 per cent gave traffic snarl-ups as their reason for choosing to become daily Metro commuters. Another 16.51 per cent said it was the time saved that drove them to the Metro. Other reasons were comfort (15.97 per cent ), safety (8.38 per cent) and parking problem (5.14 per cent). The Metro clearly means better mobility to many because one-fourth of Metro commuters (24.8 per cent) were two-wheeler owners, the 2007 crri survey found, and almost one-fifth (18.11 per cent) were car owners.
Santosh Yadav, 57-year-old principal of Delhi’s Lady Reading Health School, thanks Metro for easing her joint pains. Before it came to Noida, where she lives in sector-61, her daily commute meant sitting for one-and-a-half hours in the car. And then another two hours on her way back. This made her joint pain worse. On November 13 last year, when Metro rail reached Noida, Yadav abandoned her car for the Metro. “It is convenient and saves me time and money,” Yadav said. She now reaches college in 45 minutes.
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I live in Dwarka and my workplace is Tis Hazari court in Old Delhi. Earlier, I rode a bike and spent one hour on the road. Now I reach the court in 20 minutes. |
- DEEPAK SHARMA |
Her 25-year-old daughter Misha too has joined her in the daily Metro ride. Misha spends time at Delhi’s Ramakrishna Mission library; it takes her 40 minutes to reach. “Earlier, we spent Rs 7,500 per month on petrol and another Rs 5,000 a month on the driver’s salary. Both of us now together spend Rs 3,000 a month on fare and another Rs 400 as monthly car parking charges at the Noida station. We save Rs 9,000 in a month,” Misha said.
Deepak Sharma, 28-year-old lawyer, saves time. “I live in Dwarka and work in Tis Hazari Court in Old Delhi. Earlier, I spent one hour on the road each way. Now that I travel by Metro, I reach the court within 20 minutes,” said Sharma.
Traders in Chawri Bazar near Jama Masjid said business has been better since Metro came to their doorstep. “My printing business has gone up by 30-35 per cent after the Chawri Bazar station opened,” said Yogesh Sharma, a shop owner. “People hesitated to come here because of the congestion and lack of parking close to the market,” he said. They had to park their vehicles one-two km away at the New Delhi railway station or at Jama Masjid, and then take a cycle rickshaw. “But now customers get off at Chawri Bazar Metro station and walk up to our shops,” he added.
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People hardly came to my shop earlier because of congestion in the area and lack of parking. Now they get off at Chawri Bazar station and walk to my shop. |
- YOGESH SHARMA |
Sharma too takes the Metro every day from the Cantonment area where he lives. Earlier, negotiating the impossible traffic jam near Jama Masjid used to take over 40 minutes and very often the parking lot used to be full. The day Metro reached Chawri Bazar, Sharma said he abandoned his car and bought a Metro ticket. Now he reaches his shop within 15 minutes, spending Rs 15 a day.
“Earlier, I used to spend Rs 2,400 a month on petrol and another Rs 400 as parking charges,” Sharma said.
Coaches are overcrowded
Metro trains in Delhi have four coaches and a maximum capacity of 1,400 commuters. The frequency of trains ranges from 5 minutes during peak hours to 25 minutes on some corridors. Overcrowding is turning out to be a major problem, primarily during rush hour.
The major intersection stations— Rajiv Chowk and Kashmere Ga - te—are where the crisis unfolds daily. Richa Narang, 23-year-old student of Amity University at Noida, often travels between Noida and Rajiv Chowk. She and her friends like to spend time in the arcades of Connaught Place, but dread the evening rush at the Rajiv Chowk Metro station. “I often skip two trains before boarding the third one, only to find myself crushed between people,” said Narang. “DMRC should reserve one coach for women,” she suggested.
“We are increasing the number of coaches from four to six. But crowding at stations like Rajiv Chowk will stay for a while as these are the points from where people can interchange between different Metro corridors,” said Dayal. “We have placed an order for 83 trains with Bombardier Transportation India Ltd and for 48 trains with BEML, Bengaluru,” added Dayal.
“Delhi Metro stations are designed to accommodate eight-coach trains. So why is DMRC running only four-coach trains?” asked Bharat Singal, director general of Delhi’s Institute of Urban Transport, research institute under the Union Ministry of Urban Development. DMRC has no clear answers. And this when the Metro is carrying less than half the projected commuters.
A million commuters only
The actual ridership figures are way off the initial projections. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) rapped DMRC for the shortfall in the ridership and cited high fare structure compared to other modes of public transport as the reason. In its audit report on phase-I of the Metro, CAG said according to the 1995 projection, 3.18 million passenger trips per day were expected in 2005. The subsequent projection of 2003 showed daily ridership of 2.26 million. But in November 2007 the Metro had only 0.66 million riders per day. Even now, in March 2010, daily ridership is only one million.
The CAG report blamed low ridership on the fare structure, lack of proper connectivity and a feeder bus system for areas adjoining the Metro stations. It also said despite low ridership, there was congestion during peak hours. The congestion was attributed to “factors such as lower number of passenger cars, suboptimal speed over the rail network, lower frequency of trains and absence of differential fares during peak hours”.
According to Sudhir Badami, a transport planner in Mumbai, inflated ridership projections are often used to justify a capital-intensive Metro project. “Delhi Metro is not the only one with incorrect projection figures. When proposed, Kolkata Metro had projected a ridership of 1.1 million per day. But actual usage is only 0.45 million a day,” said Badami.
On a different gauge
Delhi Metro is possibly the world’s only underground rail project that runs both on the broad and standard gauge. Broad gauge has 1.6 m distance between the two rail tracks, whereas the standard gauge tracks are 1.4 m apart.
The 65.10 km of Metro’s phase-I are in the broad gauge; the remaining 348 km in the standard gauge. The two kinds of tracks are there as a result of different ways in which ministry of railways and the DMRC view the matter.
“We wanted to adopt the standard gauge, the international norm, but the railway ministry wanted broad gauge Metro because Indian railway runs on this gauge,” explained Dayal. This matter was referred to a group of ministers, which initially ruled in favour of broad gauge. Phase-I was therefore built on broad gauge.
But DMRC pushed the matter and got its way; the government then ruled in favour of the standard gauge. “It becomes easier to import technology and become part of the world market if our Metros run on the standard gauge,” Dayal said. “Then why the delay in getting more Metro coaches?” asked Singal.
This is a question DMRC dodged. “Questions about manufacture and supply of coaches should be asked to the respective companies,” Dayal said. The coach manufacturing companies, though, are not forthcoming on the supply gap. The transnational Bombardier Transportation, world’s largest rail equipment manufacturing company, has set up a coach-making factory near Vadodara in Gujarat to supply coaches to DMRC. It has bagged a US $700 million contract from DMRC to supply 424 broad gauge coaches by December 2010.
DMRC has placed an order for another 48 (standard gauge) trains with a consortium of Mitsubishi-Rotem- Mitsubishi Electrical-BEML. Bombardier has so far supplied only 28 trains and BEML 17 trains. Despite repeated requests both Bombardier and BEML refused to comment.
Costly choice
The difference between broad gauge and standard gauge Metro is not just a difference of 0.2 m between the two tracks. It is a difference in the carrying capacity of coaches that run on them. A standard gauge coach can carry 350 persons whereas the broad gauge Metro coach can hold 450 commuters. Adoption of broad gauge could have eased the present crisis, said V K J Rane, former managing director of Indian Railway Construction Company (IRCON). “There was a strong techno-economical reason to push for broad gauge Metro in India. Broad gauge coaches are wider and can transport more people,” said Rane. A four-coach train now carries 1,400 people; a broad gauge Metro would carry 1,800 commuters.
Broad gauge Metro has other benefits as well. The imported standard gauge coach costs Rs 10 crore, whereas an indigenously manufactured broad gauge coach would cost only Rs 2 crore. “The Indian Railways run on the broad gauge and rail factories are geared towards manufacturing such coaches,” said Singal.
Since standard gauge Metros carry less people and are capital intensive, financial returns are limited. These then need a high subsidy from the government. “Introduction of indigenously manufactured broad gauge coaches can reduce fare cost by one-third,” said Rane. Operational cost of an indigenous broad gauge Metro would also be 40 per cent less.
The standard gauge coaches now have sophisticated signalling for a train frequency of two minutes but no city in India is planning for such two-minute headway. “Then why spend so much money on the signalling system,” asked Rane. Now that Delhi Metro has both broad and standard gauges on its tracks, these incompatible systems will require DMRC to maintain two separate systems of operation.
India’s population density and daily trips are higher compared to developed countries. “The standard gauge cannot meet our requirements. There is no techno-economic analysis behind introduction of standard gauge Metros across India,” added Rane. Incidentally, cities abroad have realized the merit of broad gauge Metro and are introducing them now. For instance, in 2003 the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) in San Francisco chose broad gauge over standard gauge.
Following in Delhi’s footsteps, all Indian cities are now going in for standard gauge Metro. Mumbai, with one of the highest population densities in the world, too has adopted a standard gauge Metro and construction of the first corridor between Versova and Ghatkopar is on. CSR Nanjing China is supplying standard gauge coaches for the Mumbai Metro.
Where Delhi Metro stations can accommodate eight coaches, Mumbai’s Metro stations will accommodate a maximum of six coaches. Even at the planned capacity, Metro will fail to meet the daily trips demand. Against a demand of 30,547 peak-hour-peakdirection traffic (PHPDT) in 2031 on the Versova-Ghatkopar corridor, the planned capacity is only 23,560 PHPDT (see table: ‘Mumbai’s coping capacity’). “These figures tell us that Metro alone cannot meet the city’s daily trips demand. The need of the hour is a bus rapid transit system, which is well-integrated with other modes of public transport,” said Badami.
Mumbai Metro
A detailed feasibility study for mass transit system in Mumbai was carried out during 1997-2000. This study recommended a mass transit corridor from the Andheri to Ghatkopar. This study was updated by Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) in May 2004 when it unveiled a master plan. DMRC then recommended to extend Andheri- Ghatkopar section to Versova and identified it as priority corridor for implementation.
Mumbai Metro project is divided into three phases, with a length of 146.5 km at a cost of Rs 19,525 crore. Phase-I is being implemented on a build-own-operate basis for 35 years. It is being led by a consortium, Mumbai Metro One Private Limited, a joint venture company formed by Reliance Energy Limited; Veolia Transport, France; and MMRDA. The cost of phase-I is Rs 2,356 crore. It is expected to carry 0.6 million passengers a day.
Delhi Metro
DMRC is a joint venture between government of India and the Delhi government. The aim was to provide a modern and less polluting mass transport system for the city.
- 65.10 km phase-I between Shahdara and Tis Hazari inaugurated in December 2002. Built on the broad gauge, at a cost of Rs 10,571 crore.
- 124.63 km phase-II scheduled to be finished by October 2010.
- Phase-III and phase-IV will add another 115.59 km and 108.50 km respectively. To be completed by 2021.
- Total length of Delhi Metro is 413.1 km. At present, 95.53 km operational.
Stranded at the station
Sonika Gupta, 29, who lives in Delhi’s Geeta Colony troubles her husband every morning to drop her to Yamuna Bank Metro Station on his motorbike; there is no bus service to the station, which is four km from her house.
An auto rickshaw ride costs her Rs 60 per trip. “I don’t understand why there is no bus service to the station,” said Gupta, accountant with a software company in Shadipur.
The nearest bus stop from Yamuna Bank is two km away at Laxmi Nagar. “The station, it seems, is meant for those who own vehicles. It is out of bounds for people like us who depend on public transport,” she added. The Yamuna Bank station is more than one km from the main road. People in the area said in the absence of buses they have only three choices: cycle rickshaw (Rs 10), auto rickshaw (Rs 20) or go on foot. “At night the stretch is deserted and unsafe to walk. We are compelled to take an auto or cycle rickshaw,” said 40-yearold Ritu Devgan.
Delhi’s Metro riders are plagued by the lack of easy transfers to other modes of transport because providing convenient interchanges were not part of the planning exercise. Reaching the Metro and making it to one’s destination after disembarking is chaotic. The Metro does not connect with buses, auto rickshaws, and cycle rickshaws. It has completely ignored pedestrians and cyclists; a person walking to a Metro station often has to jump over barricades or brave the fast-moving traffic (see diagram).
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There is no bus service to Yamuna Bank Metro station. The nearest bus stop is two km away. I cannot spend Rs 60 every day on auto rickshaws to reach the station. |
- SONIKA GUPTA |
In the absence of proper integration, different modes of public transport often end up competing with one another. The Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) has realigned some of its bus routes believing that buses should not run parallel to the Metro. Private bus operators are opting out of routes that run adjacent to the Metro. Some Metro stations are so badly planned that pedestrians find them hard to reach. Delhi’s Laxmi Nagar station requires a person to walk an additional 200 m because the right turn at the crossing near the station is closed. The pedestrian then has to take a longer route, climb a foot overbridge and then reach the station (see map, ‘Reaching Delhi’s Metro stations’). “The Metro has increased pedestrian traffic near the junction. Blocking the right turn has taken away access to the station; pedestrians now have to risk their safety,” said Sunil Kumar, a shopkeeper.
Integration has not happened because it is no one’s responsibility, said Singal. “DTC feels it is responsible only for running the buses, whereas DMRC thinks its job ends with providing a swanky Metro station. Unless there is integration, Metro will fail to make a dent in the mobility problem,” said Singal.
DMRC claims it is working towards integration. “We started a feeder system of 120 RTV vans, which was contracted out to a private player. The aim was to transport people living within a 5-10 km radius. But because of complaints we have stopped that service,” said Dayal. DMRC is now working on a fresh contract and also procuring 300 more feeder buses, he said. It has also started rent-abicycle at a few Metro stations, which has been been given on contract (see box, ‘Rent a bicycle’).
Parking woes
Parking lots at the Metro stations have also been given on contract. But commuters often complain that on reaching the Metro parking lot they find all the spots have been taken mostly by noncommuters.
Parking a car costs only Rs 10 for 10 hours; a two-wheelers can be parked for just Rs 5 for the whole day. “It is not possible for the contractor to differentiate between a Metro commuter and a non-commuter. But we are trying to develop smart cards to make the distinction,” said Dayal.
Santosh Kumar of Ashima Securities has a contract for parking at the Pragati Maidan Metro station, but he now wants to opt out. “I am making a loss of Rs 80,000 per month,” Kumar said. He got the parking contract in February this year for which he had to pay Rs 155,000 to DMRC and Rs 30,000 to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) every month.
“But I am able to earn only Rs 70,000 and Rs 22,000 from DMRC and MCD parking every month,” he said. The parking fare is too low, he thinks. “It won’t make business sense unless DMRC raises the parking fee,” Kumar said.
Urban mobility
When a Metro ride becomes more attractive than a car ride, the roads get decongested. But the Metro ride has to become attractive even after a commuter steps out of the station. “The Metro is not being integrated with the master plans of cities,” said architect and town planner Kuldip Singh. Be it Delhi, Bengaluru or Kochi, a standard formula has evolved where elevated rail tracks pass along a city’s arterial roads, often cutting through its most congested parts, he explained. “These have been conceived as standalone engineering projects with no attempt at all to fit them into the urban fabric of the city,” Singh complained.
“In a recent survey we found that more than half the Metro commuters had to walk more than 200 m to reach the station from the bus stand,” said Singal. A study conducted by Geetam Tiwari, assistant professor, Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Programme (TRIPP) at IITDelhi found people preferred the Metro only for longer distances, say over 12 km. “One does not save time if one travels 3-4 km. This is because of the additional distance one has to walk to reach the station and then wait for a train,” said Tiwari.
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The Dilshad Garden Metro station is inaccessible to pedestrians like me because of the ongoing construction. On top of it there is crazy traffic to deal with . |
- TRIPTI SHARMA |
This clearly shows that Metro must be integrated with walking, cycling and other public transport systems, such as the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). “Unfortunately, instead of becoming a mass transport solution, the Metro is turning out to be an industrial project,” Tiwari lamented.
Metro construction in Mumbai too lacks integrated planning. The first Metro corridor is being built along the busy main road and all the Metro stations open up on the road. “I have attended various high level meetings on transport planning, but nowhere are they talking integrated transport planning. Transport agencies are working in a compartmentalized manner,” said Bina C Balakrishnan, transport planner in Mumbai who has worked on transport projects with the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA). There is a flyover at Andheri because of which the Metro will pass at a ridiculous height, she added.
According to Balakrishnan, integration happens at three levels. First is the space integration, as Metro and monorail are elevated structures. Second is ticketing integration so that using one smart card a passenger can switch between various modes of transport. Third, there needs to be information integration. “Once a commuter disembarks, information on other modes of transportation from that point should be made available,” she explained.
An enormous challenge lies ahead for Delhi. A 2005 study carried out by RITES shows that between 2001 and 2021, the population of Delhi is estimated to grow from 13.8 million to 23 million. In the same period, the vehicular trips per day are estimated to grow from 10.7 to 24.7 million. So while the population is expected to grow by 67 per cent, vehicular trips per day are expected to grow by 131 per cent. Bus services, Metro rail and IRBT (integrated rail cum bus transit system), if implemented as planned, are estimated to together make possible 15 million trips per day by 2021. But there will still be a shortfall of nearly nine million trips per day.
Rent a bicycle
The Vishwavidyalaya Metro station at Delhi University’s north campus offers bicycles on rent. Richa Sharma (left, in pink), 22, studying at the Central Institute of Education takes the Metro from Civil Lines to Vishwavidyalaya; she then rents a bicycle and reaches her college. “Renting a bicycle costs Rs 10 for four hours; a cycle rickshaw would have cost Rs 15-20,” said Sharma.
“Even when the contractor charges Rs 5 per hour on exceeding the four-hour limit, it still works out cheaper than cycle rickshaws,” said Srishti Arora of Miranda House college. But the numbers are still not adding up to a profit. “Of the 10 students that come out at Vishwavidyalaya station, only three hire a bicycle,” said the rent-a-bicycle contractor. He is waiting for business to pick up.
Real estate funds Metro
Computing profit and loss of Metro projects is tricky. Such projects all over the world are known for running into a loss. These capital-intensive projects cost between Rs 110 crore and 210 crore per km of elevated corridors.
Cost of underground Metro is three times. There are over 130 projects in the world; they all require government financing. There is nothing wrong with that, said Tiwari; Metro projects should be viewed as a public service, like water supply, electricity and sewerage.
Dayal claimed Delhi Metro is one of the few that are making an operational profit. “Our operation ratio is 0.52, which means of every Rs 100 that we earn, we spend only 52 paise on operating and maintaining the Metro,” he said. But this has become possible because of the property development activities that DMRC is into. Thirty per cent of its revenue comes from land development activities, Dayal informed. For example, Shastri Nagar IT Park, McDonald’s outlet at Kashmere Gate, Big Bazaar store at Inderlok and ATMs at other Metro stations.
Urban planners claim this is akin to real estate money funding a city’s transport project. The Delhi government handed over 350 hectares of land to DMRC at a subsidized rate. This land is now being exploited by the corporation to raise revenue. “DMRC is operating more like a real estate broker. It gets land from government agencies like Delhi Development Authority at their base acquisition value and then it sells it to developers at the market price,” said Kuldip Singh, senior architect. RTI applications filed by a Delhi non-profit Chetna exposed how a plot acquired at Rs 4 crore was sold for Rs 194 crore. DMRC claimed such property development kept the ticket cost low.
A first of its kind in India, Mumbai opted for public-private partnership (PPP). Mumbai Metro One Private Ltd, a joint venture, is building this privately financed project (see box, ‘Mumbai Metro’ on p27). Transport planners are uncertain how this will work. “A private firm will build the Metro only if there is profit. And this profit comes from real estate,” said Tiwari.
Private companies agree. Roshan Singh, spokesperson of Mumbai Metro One Private Ltd, admitted 60 per cent revenue will come from property development and advertisements. The company is also banking on a higher floor space index (FSI) to carry out commerce on Metro premises. “FSI around Metro stations would be increased to 4 from the current 2 by way of legislation,” informed Roshan Singh. FSI indicates the maximum construction allowed on a plot in a particular area.
According to Kuldip Singh, FSI is being increased without a thought to the city’s master plan and carrying capacity. It may also lead to land grab. DMRC is already demanding change of land-use along Metro corridors to make it financially viable. The government has demarcated 500 m-wide strips of dense commercial activity along the Metro network. There are plans to increase FSI and change land use from residential to commercial. This will partially offset DMRC’s initial capital investment and increase ridership.
But there are associated risks. The Rs 12,132 crore Hyderabad Metro, a PPP project, had to be scrapped in July last year. Being built by Maytas-led consortium, a sister concern of Satyam, it not only refused government’s financial support, but also proposed to pay the government Rs 30,311 crore in three instalments by the end of a 35-year lease. The source of its revenue was not the Metro project, but the 92,903 sq m space along the Metro. “It was a real estate project and Metro was only incidental,” said Tiwari.
The deputy chairperson of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, wrote to the prime minister suggesting the same model be adopted in other cities. The Satyam scam then came to light and the project was dropped.
The Metro, feels Kuldip Singh, is no longer focussed on increasing mobility. “Rather than Metro serving the city’s existing land use and traffic demands, the principles of urban planning have been subverted to serve the Metro,” he added. Where does that leave the daily commuter?
Inputs from Rajil Menon in Mumbai
Carbon credits for Delhi
The Delhi Metro is the world’s first railway project to be registered by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change under the Clean Development Mechanism. It has claimed carbon credits, amounting to Rs 1.2 crore annually, for the use of regenerative braking system in its trains.
It reduces electricity requirement by 30 per cent. Whenever a train applies brakes, the kinetic energy released starts a machine known as converter-inverter. This machine acts as an electricity generator, which supplies electrical energy back to the overhead electricity lines. The regenerated electrical energy that is supplied back to the overhead lines is used by other accelerating trains.
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