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Metro, launched by Vajpayee in 2002, is now world’s 3rd largest rapid transit system, setting global standards for cleanliness & sustainability.

New Delhi: When Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was told that the execution of the Delhi Metro project had been delayed for decades, he simply said, “Please implement it immediately.”

The prompt reply, as recalled by then Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit in an interview, can be used to characterise the Delhi Metro itself — efficient, well-planned and without superfluous fanfare.

On this day — 24 December 2002 — Vajpayee inaugurated the first stretch of the Metro between Shahdara and Tis Hazari on what is now called the Red Line. It measured a mere 8.4 km and was opened for public use the next day, Christmas day and Vajpayee’s birthday.

It is said Vajpayee insisted on paying for his ride.

Running ahead of time

The Delhi Metro completed the first phase of construction two years and nine months ahead of schedule in 2005, without exceeding the budget — a feat previously considered impossible by a government agency.

But the Delhi Metro, a joint venture between the Delhi government and the Centre, granted the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) enough autonomy to let the genius of E. Sreedharan shine through.

The ‘Metro Man,’ as he is popularly known, Sreedharan would come to revolutionise the way in which citizens interacted with their capital city, and the expectations they could have from their government.

Also read: Why Delhi Metro carries far fewer riders than almost any other city’s system worldwide

Entering a new phase

Now, 16 years later, with the fourth phase of the Metro being approved by Delhi’s AAP government as recently as Wednesday, the rapid transit system is set to be the third largest in the world.

After the completion of fourth phase, the Delhi Metro will reportedly cover approximately 453.58 km, leaving behind London (402 km), Guangzhou, China (391.8 km), New York (380.2 km) and Moscow (381 km) to claim the third position in the world with Shanghai (644 km) and Beijing (599.44 km) already occupying the first and second spots, respectively.

Its journey, however, from an idea to an example, traces its roots as far back as the 1970s, when the first plans for a mass rapid transit system were envisioned.

An unprecedented undertaking

Sreedharan said in an interview with Hindustan Times last year that there was a proposal in the early 1970s to construct a railway-based mass rapid transit system in the four metropolitan cities of Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. For this purpose, the government even set up metropolitan transport projects (MTPs) in the cities.

However, “nothing materialised till RITES was commissioned to prepare the Detailed Project Report (DPR) in early 1990s”, the former DMRC chief said.

He said that the “valiant approach of N.P. Singh, the then secretary of Urban Affairs, who had an excellent rapport with the then Prime Minister, H.D. Deve Gowda” to ultimately procure the government’s nod for a Metro in Delhi.

With only the Kolkata Metro railway as a yardstick, which to date measures only 27.22 km and is severely delayed, the Delhi Metro project was an unprecedented undertaking in terms of scale, budget and manpower.

In addition to this, Delhi offered the difficult challenge of a highly populated urban environment, with expectations to construct within an expedited timeframe.

Also read: Mumbai moves to get past its creaky, colonial local train network with new metro lines

Meeting global standards

Sreedharan and his team had their work cut out for them. But despite challenges such as roping in international experts and getting a loan from the erstwhile Japan Bank for International Cooperation, the DMRC managed to set global standards of cleanliness, sustainability and economic efficiency.

In 2011, DMRC was certified by the United Nations (UN) as the first rail-based system in the world that would get carbon credits for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 6.3 lakh tonne every year. Accordingly, DMRC earned Rs 2.41 crore by selling 82,000 units of carbon credits.

As of March 2017, the Delhi Metro had witnessed a cumulative ridership of 1 billion passengers annually, and was undertaking roughly 3,000 trips per day.

For Sreedharan, “The biggest change Delhi Metro has achieved is that it has changed the travel style of Delhi’s public. For travelling in a Metro, commuters have to observe orderliness, discipline, patience and consideration for fellow travellers,” he said in the HT interview.

The fare hike controversy

However, since increasing fares twice in 2017, the Delhi Metro has come under considerable criticism for alienating the lower-income group from access to affordable transport.

A study conducted by the Centre for Science and Environment concluded that the Delhi Metro is the second most unaffordable transit system in the world in terms of the percentage a commuter spends of his or her income per journey.

The report also claims that the Metro witnessed a significant drop of approximately 4.2 lakh passengers in ridership as of 2018 after the fare hike.

This report has been corrected to reflect the actual current coverage of the Delhi Metro.

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