In 2010-12, Mamata Banerjee, the then Union railway minister, had allocated Rs 10,000 crore for Kolkata Metro’s expansion. The plan is to extend it to 111 km by 2015-16 and raise the ridership to 2 million a day but, admit Kolkata Metro officials, the target is almost impossible to achieve. Though it had begun services in October 1984, it covers only 25.2 km and ferries 600,000 people a day.
Kolkata Metro became fully operational only in 1996 after a delay of a good 16 years. Over 1.8 million travel on Delhi Metro every day.Įlsewhere in the country, the Metro network hasn’t grown as rapidly. The bus corridor, which was projected as an inexpensive mass transport alternative to the Metro, is out of reckoning because of tardy traffic management. In recent protests, the Delhi Police cleverly shut Metro stations close to the disturbances. It is also widely recognised as an agent of social change: apart from other things, it helps the middle classes travel to protest venues in style and reasonable comfort. Property prices climb 5-10 per cent in localities touched by Delhi Metro. Last week, it was asked to draw up a blueprint to decongest and redevelop Chandni Chowk area in the old part of the city. Singh is not bitter because DMRC has gone from strength to strength, assuming a bigger role in Delhi’s civic life. “When people’s livelihood is affected they obviously protest, but they soon realise that it will help them.”
Land acquisition, he says, was a new concept then. And Singh holds no bitterness against the truckers. Khyber Pass, where the truckers had shown murderous intent, has a Metro depot. By 2021, it will have added another 240 km. Fourteen years later, Delhi Metro is all set to roll into Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh and Bahadurgarh in Haryana. Some of them tried to set his car ablaze. Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Deputy Chief Engineer Daljeet Singh was taking charge of a piece of land where trucks used to be parked. The venue was Khyber Pass in north Delhi, named after the pass that connects Pakistan and Afghanistan.
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