There is no point brooding over the financial compatibility of metro.True it hasn't touched many lives yet but we also have to see that it has not expanded fully yet.So we should give some time for figures to stabilize.However I had my own apprehensions about its usefulness when it goes full throttle.The problem is that unless there is no metro within half a kilometre of one's residence it will be difficult to draw people towards it.It will be difficult to change middle class mentality because they still prefer to go in cars thanks to good roads in delhi.Metro travel would need to be ingrained in people's minds.Besides it the government can do its bit to improve traffic conditions.e.g most of the traffic jams are dues to buses parking in stands.There are no separate stands on main roads.These wll stands could be made underground so that there is no rush on the road above.This would really help in reducing traffic at main junctions.Also the big lorries could be routed out from the city through separate ring roads.These are just the few of the steps which would help in making delhi a better place.
Metro project is not at all a mistake. I am not so sure if any alternative projected in the article could even attempt in solving the congestion problems. It would be very very helpful to commuters and make them come to metro more if a)feeder bus is provided to the metro stations, and b) a common ticket policy is adopted for the buses and metro. Also, maintenance should not be a big problem if advertising place is cleverly planned and organized. The potential is immense for all- the commuters, they have a faster and punctual mode of transport, the authority, they have floating money and the Delhi people in general, they have a cleaner and quiter city.
Hi Capacity Bus Systems are going to cost a lot more pollution than a metro ever will. In a city like delhi, where we are just starting to make progress on the pollution front, a high-capacity bus system will take us backwards.
A Metro is much better, and much more scalable with minimum pollution.
Perhaps metro is the only thing on which Delhi can boast of. Whatever may be the expenditure incurred, the long term benefits are hundred fold.
If you caluclate the money already spent on Metro, then you should also took into consideration the fact that due to metro rate of property increased significantly on the routes where metro rail is running. People are earning lakhs of rs. because of metro. Metro provides employment to thousands of people. The value of the land which metro owes is much more than what govt spent on metro. Of course it is govt land, but the value of proplerty is much more now than prviously. Metro is going to be the lifeline of not only delhi but of whole NCR and nearby ares, helping more than crore of people in near future.
The metro railways in kolkata lacks the basic principal of inter-connectivity among differant mode of transport where bulk of the population move from one corner to another in the city. It does not have connectivity to the main railway stn. Howrah and Shealdah and also to the airport. Where the passangers have to take the age old transport system on a limited surface road. Does it make a convenient journey for the common population who want to reach the destination in time with compititive pricing?
Such facilities world over are very difficult to run profitably directly from the revenues from the specific facility but atill they are essential. essential because whatever u run the roads will be effected by traffic jams and in course of time as volume of traffic increases the speeds will decrease. but in case rail networks the speed remains more or less the same and yet u can transport greater number of ppl by increasing the frequency. these facilities therefore repay increase the overall business potential of a place and not directly through revenues.
Is Delhi metro a costly mistake?
by labrea on Apr 05, 2006 12:46 AM Permalink
Metros are most feasible in high-density congested cities, especially in a city such as Delhi, which is already densely packed with 14 million and growing exponentially by the year. Remember, it's early days yet for the metro system, and the country's proseprity is on the rise, making the potential for realizing its optimum ridership more possible. And yes, alternate forms of transportation must be explored like CNG-run double-decker buses and even electric buses weith solar-cell roofs to augment the bank of batteries on dedicated priority lanes, like HOV lanes in the US. On the other hand, could the billions spent on the Metro be more usefully utilized on schools, housing and healthcare facilities?
