Transport in Delhi on a transition spree
Posted by akpwld on May 7, 2008
Delhi has more cars than the three other metro cities put together and so far the only solution has been the Delhi Metro. However, the Delhi government has maintained that BRT is a cheaper option.
Brijendra Mohan Sahni, who is 50 year old, lives in south Delhi and works at Karol Bagh in Central Delhi. Every morning, he takes a bus that passes through the BRT corridor.
He gets off at Patel Chowk and then uses the Metro for the rest of the journey.
”The Metro is air conditioned. I also don’t have to face a rowdy conductor, so it is much better for me as a commuter,” says Brijendra.
Has the Metro been a success story so big that the BRT cannot compare, even if the Delhi government is able to make it glitch-free? Or is the combination of local trains and new bus corridors exactly right for a city that adds on 1000 cars every day to its roads?
Experts have said that one of the main reasons for the success of the Metro is that it has autonomy while it is commissioned by the government. It answers to its own board of directors and also has to raise more than half its costs.
”The good thing about the Metro is that it has managed to raise huge money from private sources at a very low rate of interest of around two per cent. So, it is not burdening the government. And such a funding model means that all deadlines are met, so that more funding comes through,” says K K Mohanty, an infrastructure funding expert.
The BRT on the other hand is funded and managed totally by the Delhi government.
Let us take a look at a comparison between few different aspects of the Metro and the BRT.
The Delhi Metro has to complete 186 km by 2010 while the BRT has to build 115 km by then.
The BRT is estimated to handle 18 thousand commuters per hour while the Metro handles 20 thousand currently.
For routes to be built by 2010, the Metro will cost Rs 18, 000 crore whereas the BRT’s estimated costs is merely Rs 1732 crore.
Experts point out that the way forward is to ensure that the BRT and the Metro are better linked.
”Co-ordination means that I get off from the BRT and get on to the Metro. Something like that is missing because there are so many agencies involved,” says Amit Agarwal, ex-professor of transport at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.
Currently, three out of the seven proposed bus corridors in the city have been planned to intersect with different Metro lines.
The Metro that will run from the airport, for example to Cannaught place, will link up with one of the proposed BRT corridors at the Shivaji Stadium terminal. It is this integrated model of planning that will perhaps ensure Delhizens enough incentive to actually leave their cars behind and use public transport systems in the years to come.
