Ludhiana Metro
Ludhiana Metro: A Sustainable Solution or Just a Political Blunder
Navdeep Asija
10th October 2007
Yesterday Punjab Government signing of MoU for developing metro rail project in Ludhiana and highlighted the same as Landmark in Punjab’s history which will mark Punjab’s entry into the age of post-modern technology. This is debatable here, whether it is going to be post-modern or post mortem technology.As Finance minister of Punjab quoted many times that financial condition of Punjab is not good. Then who will bear this burden of huge investment in the order of 3000 crore. Moreover these 3000 crores seem to be very unrealistic estimation; it does not include the cost of rolling stock. Large projects like the Metro, the viability gap funding tends to make huge demands on the state exchequer. After this decision the financial burden born by Punjab during militancy era would seem much smaller in comparison to this upcoming mounting debt burden on the State going to be imposed by our political leaders.Instead of building a rail based mass rapid transit system; bus rapid transit system can be a good option for a city like Ludhiana, Mohali, Amritsar. Without changing much of existing road infrastructure same can be accommodated and adopted. Bus based MRTS can cater 80% of the total ridership in comparison to the metro, whilst construction cost of 1km elevated metro line is almost 35 times higher than constructing a at grade dedicated bus lane. Other advantages are, bus provides you node to node better connectivity through open and closed system, whilst Metro Involved longer length of walking trips followed by vertical up and down movement to reach metro station. A City is just not a physical structure; it is a social structure. We need to address the role of each element and development shall be made by keeping into mind minimal impact on existing social and physical structure. Construction of metro will disturb the skyline of the city and the best example is Chaura Bazar flyover, which has almost spoiled the entire city structure of Ludhiana without changing much improvement in city’s congestion situation. Another point of debate can be, metro is required to cater the future demand; but future demand can be very well addressed by developing a better master plan for the city, where people needs to travel lesser distance from workplace to home. Better planning can also results reduced congestion and pollution due to vehicles.
In Delhi alone, modal share in total motorized trips of through existing bus system is 60%. Punjab can learn the lesson from existing studies and areas where Metro has been implemented. Per kilometer Cost of Delhi Metro’s Phase-I for the construction of three lines of 65 km in total length is 163 Crore. 10, 571crore [1], enough money to by 10 full-bodied Boeing 747s. At present metro ridership is near about 7.5 lakh passenger per day, which is not feeding the 1% of total Delhi’s population. As per Delhi Metro Corporation estimations [2] number of originating passengers per day in the year 2011 for Phase I and Phase II corridors would be 26.17 lakhs. A total investment of 20847.92 [3] crore on 213.7 km long rail network just to benefit 2% of the population is not a good idea. In terms of road accidents fatalities on Delhi’s Road are increased by 8.6% between 2001 to 2005 period [4]. Passengers using the Metro make up just about a fifth of the numbers projected initially. There is also the sobering experience of the 16 km Kolkata Metro, where ridership is limited to 10 per cent of capacity [5].
Delhi Metro data reveals that metro is a viable option where people travel corridor in one direction exceeds intra city demand 20,000 persons per hour. I am sure, just to make metro viable Government won’t let Ludhiana to reach at this level through wrong policies and planning. Population density of L udhiana per Sq.kms is 804 [6] persons in comparison to Delhi’s population density 9,296 [7] person per square kilometer. With the population density 11 times higher than of Ludhiana, if Delhi metro is not able to generate half of its estimated ridership, then I have doubt that how this metro project will be feasible in the case of circular city Ludhiana well connected with linear and radial roads.
[1]http://www.delhimetrorail.com/corporates/projectupdate/project_cost.html
[2]http://www.delhimetrorail.com/corporates/projectupdate/expected_ridership.html
[3]www.urbanindia.nic.in/moud/programme/ut/Delhi_MRTS.pdf
[4]Road Accidents in Delhi 2005, by Delhi Police
[5]http://www.rediff.com/money/2006/apr/03metro.htm
[6]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludhiana
[7]http://www.demographia.com/db-delhidistr.htm
Dear navdeep it is not the financial viabilities that drive the govt. if u have ever been to delhi metro then only will u realise that how good it is, don’t go in for direct maths of the project, do you know avg spped of vehicle in delhi is going to be 6km/h in coming years as density of vehicle is increasing day by day, further the vehicular pollution, if u live in ludhiana then u must be breathing and aware of the poison emitted by public transport in ldh i.e autos. and what to say about the snarling traffic in ludhiana, i suggest go to delhi travel in metro and u will realise that it should be there.
Dear Sukhjit Ji,
Thanks for your valuable comments. You rightly mentioned average traffic speed of Delhi traffic is 6km/hr and it is likely to go down because of the increase in motor vehicles. Well, you already replied my answer; if with huge investment Delhi traffic is not going to improve;speed is likely to go down, vehicle density likely to go up, then I don’t see any reason to start Metro. Metro is completely defeated in its primary purpose and you admit this. I live in Delhi and couple of times used metro. Metro is something which does not provide node to node connectivity. Today 80% Delhi ridership comes from buses only and not from metro. Here I am not taking financial into account but the comfort, how most of the Delhi people commute.
Take the example of Ludhiana only, Industrial area roads are not good to travel even, unplanned flyovers have already worsen the situation. If by improving existing road based network, things are going to be better then why do we need Metro. Low floor bused in Delhi have increased their comfort level almost equal to metro. Metro is only viable where your average trip length is more than 15km. In Ludhiana it is less than 8km. Recent research have proven that access trip cost to reach metro cost more than 21/- Rs which means metro is going to be mode of commuting for rich only. Kolkata metro started in 1977, not able to get the 10% of total ridership within city?
Government does not function on financial calculations but government do have priority list. It’s up to the government to decide, whether they are interested to build good schools, primary healthcare center or expensive metro, where with almost equal to the annual budget of Punjab not 1% of the entire Punjab populations is going to be benefited. In the above discussion, I have taken the data related to comfort level and ridership not cost of construction; I hope that justify my argument.
Regards,