METROSCAPE

OTHER METRO STORIES The Metro Rail Project

Year 2001. Rahul Sharma reaches Delhi for his MBA entrance interview. From New Delhi Railway Station in the heart of the capital he has to rush to his aunt's house at Shahdara in east Delhi to freshen up before reaching Delhi University in the northern part of the city for the interview. Shahdara is less than 15 km away but the autorickshaw, winding its way through clogged roads thick with pollution, takes an hour and Rs 75 to reach the place. Not willing to go through the grind again before the interview, Sharma hires a cab, paying Rs 250 for the 20-km journey that takes 45 minutes.

Year 2005. Sharma is in Delhi again for a job interview. He needn't undergo his experience in the autorickshaw again. He takes an escalator to reach the underground metro where he boards an air-conditioned train to Inter-State Bus Terminus 6 km away. There he catches another train to Shahdara and reaches his aunt's house in 35 minutes. Total cost of travel: Rs 15.

Dreaming. Not really. In another four years, Delhi will have one of the most advanced mass rapid transport systems (MRTS) in the world. Work on the first phase of the Rs 15,000 crore (at 1995 prices) Delhi Metro Rail project is in full swing and is expected to be completed by 2005. Its first stretch will be operational by next year. With an average speed of 35 kmph and tickets expected to be priced at Rs 4-15, the metro will offer an efficient, affordable and comfortable mode of public transport to the capital. Once fully operational, Delhi Metro Rail would make 2,400 buses redundant, push up the average speed of buses from 10.5 kmph now to 14 kmph, bring down pollution by half and allow a phenomenal saving of Rs 500 crore per year in fuel costs.

It's a comfort long overdue. With a population of 138 lakh and another 20 lakh people coming to the city to work every day, Delhi is an urban planner's nightmare come true. The number of vehicles on its roads has swollen to 36 lakh, higher than the combined total of Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. Buses and cars inch forward during rush hour. Globally, civic authorities contemplate an MRTS as soon as a city's population crosses the 10 lakh mark. India has at least eight cities with over 30 lakh people but except Mumbai and Kolkata, no other city has an MRTS.

CONTROVERSY

RAIL ROW A tug of war is raging over the gauge of the rails The Delhi metro has not been completely immune to the vagaries of the Indian bureaucracy. There is a tug of war between the Delhi Government and the Central Government over the choice of the gauge of the tracks. Led by the Railway Board, the Central Government has decided in favour of the obsolete broad gauge (1,676 mm) while the Delhi Government and the DMRC want to use the more widely used standard gauge (1,435 mm). RITES had initially recommended broad gauge in its 1995 report but later switched to standard gauge. The genesis of the tangle is a study in red tape. All rail projects in the country are governed by the archaic Railways Act and have to get technical clearance from the Railways. The Railways say that since they have no experience in standard gauge, they will not be able to give clearance. Indian Railways and Kolkata metro use broad gauge. But the tussle has more to do with the ego clash between former Railway Board chairman V.K. Agarwal and DMRC Managing Director E. Sreedharan. Standard gauge makes more sense because globally all technological developments are being done on those tracks. So Delhi metro will be able to get the latest technology without any time lag. Broad gauge is obsolete and equipment will have to be specially manufactured, which means a cost overrun of Rs 800-900 crore and a delay of a year. The Delhi Government is dead against broad gauge. "We do not want obsolete technology," says Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit. But Railway Board Chairman R.L. Malhotra recently said there is no going back. There is not much time left. Manufacturing of tracks and coaches for broad gauge begins this month. "If we get even the slightest hope that the decision would be reviewed, we will defer the manufacture," says DMRC Managing Director E. Sreedharan. All eyes are now on the prime minister.

To be fair, it's not that the authorities were ignorant of the need. The quest for an MRTS began way back in 1950 and close to 35 studies have been done so far. As early as 1974, the Indian Railways prepared a detailed plan for an MRTS followed by a rites report in 1989. But economic constraints always prevented the translation of words into action. It was an extraordinary problem that needed an extraordinary solution.

That solution was found in 1995 with the incorporation of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), a corporate body given charge of building the metro in Delhi. Though DMRC is owned by the Central and Delhi governments and most of its staff is on deputation from Indian Railways the culture differs strikingly from that of a state-run organisation. Decision-making is swift and devoid of political interference. For instance, bills are settled within seven days.

The operational freedom that DMRC enjoys is something the government promised when E. Sreedharan, the man who headed the Rs 3,500-crore Konkan Railway project, was offered the post of DMRC's managing director. Sreedharan, 68, set two preconditions for joining-full powers to pick his team and no interference from the government. The deal was on. Handpicked by Sreedharan, the DMRC management is lean by PSU standards-350 staff including 250 technocrats. No clerks. No peons.

There is also a marked difference in the way business is done. Public projects in India are usually associated with delays, cost overruns and poor quality construction. But in the DMRC, deadlines are sacrosanct because a one-day delay means a loss of Rs 2-3 crore. So every agreement signed with a contractor has a penalty clause for delays. This is supplemented by the expertise of five global consultants that are on the DMRC board.

The 50-year-old dream is finally coming true. The first phase of 52 km covering three heavy-traffic stretches (see map) will cost around Rs 8,200 crore to build. It will be a mix of underground, surface and elevated corridors. The underground corridor is expensive, costing Rs 300 crore per km whereas the surface corridor cost only Rs 60 crore and the elevated one Rs 80 crore per km. The funding for the first phase is in place: 30 per cent of the money will come as 50:50 equity participation between the Central Government and the Delhi Government, 56 per cent as a soft loan from a Japanese development bank, 8 per cent as interest-free loan from the Central and Delhi governments for land acquisition and 6 per cent from property development.

"I had full freedom to pick my team and execute the project." E. Sreedharan, Managing Director, DMRC

Along the stretch that would connect Shahdara to the Tis Hazari area in the northern part of Delhi, 2,000-odd workers are working round the clock. "I'm not worried about Phase I. We will start trial runs on the first stretch in June and commercial operations in November," says a confident Sreedharan.

What is worrying however is the project's commercial viability, the crucial factor that will ultimately decide the Delhi metro's future. Even after 15 years, the Kolkata metro is still making losses. "Nobody is talking about the second phase or metros for other cities. They think it's a big financial commitment," says Sreedharan. Globally, the construction and operation of metro projects are subsidised by governments. But DMRC is hopeful that the heavy volume of traffic in Delhi will generate enough revenues for its operations.

The projections certainly seem to suggest that. The cost of operating and maintenance is estimated to be Rs 120 crore a year while ticket sales, car parking, advertisements and rentals would rake in around Rs 300 crore annually. Armed with such projections, Sreedharan is lobbying hard for Phase II of the project, which would cost around Rs 5,000 crore at today's prices.

Knowing Sreedharan, it might get cleared. But he doesn't have much time because his term ends in December 2002. The DMRC has moved smoothly so far. A lot will depend on who Sreedharan's successor will be. Already, some executives hint at an exodus to the Railways if Sreedharan goes. Surely, this dream is too precious to be allowed to get derailed like that.