10 Lesser-Known Facts About Delhi Metro
It has been more than 15 years that the Delhi Metro, known as the lifeline of the national capital, first became operational. Referred to as one of the most successful urban transport project in developing countries, a large part of the project has been financially funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) since 1997 through the provision of soft-loan to the Indian government. To sum up the journey of the Delhi Metro project so far, JICA unveiled a report, Breaking Ground A Narrative on the Making of Delhi Metro. The report is a part of the JICA's post-evaluation exercise of the Metro project.
One eventful journey, the JICA terms the Delhi Metro project a "shining example" of the Indo-Japanese economic cooperation.
PropGuide lists 10 key takeaways from the report about the Delhi Metro project that you didn't know of:
The many phases of the Metro: The Delhi Metro project was sanctioned in 1996. So far, it has implemented Phase-I and Phase-II, constructing a network of 65 km and 125 km each, respectively. The construction of Phase-I began in 1996 and was completed in 2006. This phase was much ahead of its schedule time and included the Red Line connecting between Shahadra and Tis Hazari, followed by the Yellow Line and Blue Line. In the second phase, that started construction in 2007, extensions to the existing three corridors were built. The Green Line and the Violet Line were the new additions connecting northwest Delhi and Faridabad. Another corridor that was included in the plan was the connecting of the Central Business District of the national capital with the Indira Gandhi International Airport. At present, the third phase is under implementation. This includes sections along the major arteries of Delhi, completing the circumvention of the routes. According to the Master Plan of Delhi, the project will be concluded with Phase-IV, making the entire network 400-km long.
Why Metro: Delhi's population more than doubled between 1961 to 1981, from 2.6 million to 6.2 million. This number further doubled to 13.7 million by 2001 as more and more people migrated to the city looking for better opportunities. The inflow of people coupled with various economic activities in the city, Delhi was no more a walled city as it had been in the Mughal era. It grew taking in some of the key cities, including Gurgaon, Noida, Faridabad and Ghaziabad and was called the National Capital Region or as we know today as Delhi-NCR.
The report suggests that planning of a metro system can begin in a city the moment its population crosses one-million mark so that by the time the city population is touching two to three million, the system would be in place. But, the Delhi Metro project only took off when the city's population was close to 10 million in 1996. It was termed as a sluggish start.
The initial move: The initial Delhi Metro project, which was approved by the then Union Cabinet in September 1996, had three corridors. Out of 55.3 km length for Phase-I, it was to have 25 km from Shahdara to Nangloi, 11 km of underground section from Vishwavidyalaya to Central Secretariat and 19.3 km from Subzi Mandi to Holambi Kalan.
The coming of Sreedharan: When the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation was formed, the operations began with a limited number of officials. But, when JICA sanctioned the share of funding on paper, it did so on condition that the DMRC should have a managing director. The then chief secretary of Delhi called Sreedharan. He initially didn't take up the job as he was still fully immersed in the Konkan Railway Project and that he was already more than 65 years of age. But, much to Sreedharan's dismay, the then Lieutenant Governor of Delhi replied in confidence, “Leave it to me”. Later, he decided to take the plunge.
Though he took up the job, he set forward a condition that if he was to become the boss of the DMRC, he should be given complete charge of the organisation, without any political interference. He also asked that he be allowed to choose his own men. All of this was agreed upon.
The money matters: For the first phase, the JICA gave funds that made up 58 per cent of the total funding required. This came in six tranches i.e. the decided amount of loan was given in in six different years. The first loan from the JICA was sanctioned in February 1997. In May 1998, Operation Shakti was launched. Soon after the nuclear tests, India faced criticism from the international community of which was the Japanese government. It was announced that all the development assistance loan will be freezed except the grants given on humanitarian grounds. However, two Japanese officials then met Sreedharan, he was informed that for those projects for which funding had already been agreed, the funding would not stop. Nobody till date knows what transpired in that meeting.
The coming of the Japanese: Sreedharan visited Japan and went to see the Tokyo Metro. It was then he saw the way Japanese worked on their technology to get a larger benefit and how this know-how can help the DMRC. Sreedharan was attracted by the way they valued time. That time JICA's funding could have possibly been discontinued and Sreedharan actually wanted to tell them that the DMRC could opt for other financing. But, he preferred his men to work side-by-side and learn from the Japanese their tunnelling technologies, their management ethos and their value for time. Later, Omori from the Pacific Consultants International was hired as the project director for general consultant team of the Delhi Metro.
The diversion during construction: Taking a cue from the Kolkata Metro, constructing a Metro network both, elevated and underground, the DMRC had to be careful about the many diversions Delhiites were to face for the coming times. The DMRC took over the diversion work, and hired agencies to prepare detailed drawing that it would later approve. They hired contractors and looked over the job to see if things are done smoothly. The DMRC also recruited retired personnel from utility owning agencies, and avoided the civil contractors to get in this work. The DMRC benefitted from shifting utilities as it sped up the work and they could side by side keep a look that the public is not disturbed.
Brand “Delhi Metro”: The DMRC was fully aware of the fanfare and how media will be talking about it for the times to come. The public relations team at the DMRC worked towards creating a positive image of the project. While some negative stories about the project did rounds, Anuj Dayal, who heads the public relations team at DMRC for more than 18 years now, worked towards bringing out Sreedharan to talk to the media. They together realised that bringing out the facts about the project would only help in media reporting positive news. Later, stories were done on how Metro would work once completed and how it will ease the traffic woes that the residents of Delhi were facing due to the construction of the very project. The public relation team at the DMRC till date proactively provides information about the project.
On time: The Delhi Metro at times experiences technical glitches, including power tripping and delays due to too many passengers. However, the punctuality of the Delhi Metro service is said to be 99.9 per cent i.e. 99.9 per cent trains reach stations in less than two minutes delay.
The Airport Line: The Airport Line missed its original deadline of opening before the Common Wealth Games in 2010. The line was later opened in January 2011. There were structural glitches which included cracks in iron beams due to inadequate filling of materials below the bearings. So, the operations were halted and the DMRC went on the rectify the problems.
Later, when the line opened, it still faced issues – the speed of train was only 50 km per hour, no faster than vehicles on the road. Adding to this was the hike in fares from original Rs 100 to Rs 130 and then to Rs 180 in another two months. And then, came the final blow. The private partner walked away and it was announced that the line could not operate. When the DMRC took over completely, it kept the old fares for the first year and focused on increasing the speed to 80 km per hour. Later, the frequency of the train dropped to 10.5 minutes from the previous 15 minutes during peak hours. With marketing techniques and these efforts, the ridership went up by 40 per cent in one year. It was then that the DMRC reduced prices to Rs 100 and later to Rs 60 in September 2015. Since then, the ridership has been on a constant rise.