Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Managing Director writes to Chief Secretary

Even as he strongly rooted for the quick expansion of Chennai's Metro network, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) Managing Director E.Sreedharan cautioned the State government that “monorail is not an ideal choice for urban transport”.

In his letter to the Chief Secretary, Mr.Sreedharan said the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model being envisaged by the State for the monorail project will not succeed unless large areas of government land are made available to the BOT operator for commercial exploitation. “For one thing, such lands are not readily available along the corridors, and even if available, handing over such large tracts of land to a private operator will attract severe criticism.”

He said that the monorail lobby is misguiding the planners and, in the process, expansion of the metro system is getting delayed.

Monorail has limited capacity, costs as much as an elevated Metro, and the operation and maintenance costs are about 30-50 per cent more than that of Metro, he said. “It would not be financially viable”.

Speaking to The Hindu, Mr.Sreedharan responded to the concerns regarding the high cost of the metro by categorising the system into three different types – light, medium and high-capacity metro. The 45 km long metro network currently being built in Chennai would have medium-capacity and can carry about 40,000 passengers per hour per direction (PPHPD).

On the other hand, a high-capacity metro can carry 90,000 passengers per hour and would cost much more. He said that the cost of a medium-capacity metro and a monorail system (with a capacity of 10,000-15,000 PPHPD) is comparable.

This is not the first time that Mr.Sreedharan is writing a letter to the State, opposing the monorail proposal. In February 2006, when the previous AIADMK government had first mooted the idea to build a 300-km-long monorail network crisscrossing the city, he had shot off a letter saying “the State government was being influenced by the monorail lobby, with its tall claims and false promises”.

While there has been a raging debate in many Indian cities on what is the “right” urban transit solution, transport planners maintain that a judicious mix of all possible solutions are required to boost the share of public transport.

But Mr.Sreedharan's contention is that Chennai's Metro network would not be “viable” unless it is expanded. He points to Delhi's example, where the ridership has steadily increased as the network expanded. The 190-km-long Delhi Metro currently caters for over 16 lakh passengers. “DMRC's projections of anticipated passengers for Chennai metro are based on the presumption that the network would keep expanding,” he added.

Widely regarded as the architect of the Delhi Metro project, Mr. Sreedharan retires on December 31, after 14 years at the helm. Outside China, Delhi has the fastest-growing Metro network in the world.