8 Facts About India's Metro System

For some of us living in big cities, imagining our lives without the Metro would be difficult. The method of transport allows us to travel major distances much faster while simultaneously helping us skip the road traffic and greater exposure to pollution. When compared to private automobiles, this mode of transportation is also quite affordable. Based on all these reasons, the popularity of the Metro rail has gone up significantly. Little wonder then that we find it quite hard to push ourselves inside of the coaches during peak hours, especially in Delhi. People seem not to mind the rush since the advantages of travelling in a Metro far exceeds the inconvenience. This is why “easy access to a Metro network” is often cited as a unique selling point by developers while marketing real estate projects. Such significant has been the growth of this network that the government last year formulated with a Metro Rail Policy, 2017, with an aim to speed up work and tame cost overruns.

Since the Metro is an interesting topic for all of us, let us learn some key facts about the home network.

*Half of the total Metro rail network in India – 231 km of the entire 429.26 km – is concentrated in national capital Delhi. In comparison, financial capital Mumbai currently has only 20 km of operational Metro route. Uttar Pradesh capital Lucknow has only an eight-km service route so far.

*Currently, the Metro rail is operating in 10 cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai, Lucknow, Kochi, Hyderabad, Jaipur and Gurgaon. Twelve more cities are going to see the arrival of the Metro in the near future. Private estimates show currently Metro projects of more than Rs 2 trillion are under approval in 15 cities.

*India is among the 55 countries that have a Metro rail network. However, its share in the global rail network is currently limited to only three per cent.

*City of Joy Kolkata was the first city to see the arrival of the Metro. Work on the country's first Metro started in 1972 while operations begun in 1984.

*Rapid Metro Rail Gurgaon, which started operations in November 2013, is India's first privately owned and operated Metro netwrok.

*The Delhi Metro, India's first modern Metro network, which began operations in 2002, is set to become the fourth-largest Metro network in the world after Shanghai, Beijing, and London in another six months or so.

*Fourteen per cent of all commuters in Delhi use the Metro while the global average is 16 per cent. In other cities, the Metro's role as main transporter has yet to gain significance.

*In future, the entire Metro network will carry 12-15 million passengers every day, about four times of their current capacity.