Metro trains are a popular form of urban transportation globally. India too, explored the idea of introducing metro trains aggressively in the last decade, with Delhi Metro Rail Corporation establishing itself as the beacon of the India’s metro rail aspiration, having the densest metro rail line and most successful ridership record. However, a recent report on a leading international publication did a story stating India’s metro is failing to attract passengers.
The report published on The Economist, in its year-ending ‘Christmas Double’ issue misconstrued that “India’s massive metro build-out is failing to attract enough passengers”. PIB, in a recent article, dismisses the claims and said article contains factual inaccuracies.
Infact, the report contradicts the artcile by stating that the daily ridership across metro systems in the country has already crossed the 10 million mark, and is expected to exceed 12.5 million soon. The metro system in India is fairly new, and in some cities, Metro is just a couple of years old.
Only a handful of cities have the metro as old as a decade, including the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation. Out of 10 million daily ridership, Delhi Metro alone recorded 7 million daily passenger movement. This figure is well beyond the projected number for Delhi Metro by the end of 2023.
Apart from the Delhi Metro, Kolkata has the oldest metro rail in India, but is limited to few routes and is not as dense as the Delhi Metro. Cities like Hyderabad, Chennai and Bengaluru have metro line below 100 km. Mumbai metro, is quickly catching up.
Further, Tier 2 cities like Agra, Lucknow, Noida, Gurgaon all have small setups of metro trains, offering ease in urban commutation.
The PIB report further says that the Economist article also suggests that many commuters who undertake short trips prefer to use other modes of transport. Contradicting the claim, the PIB report says that the DMRC metro system which is more than 20 years old has an average trip length of 18 kms.