The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and the Delhi Metro on Wednesday rubbished as “misleading and falsification of facts” a report by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), which claimed ridership of Delhi Metro is falling and is the second most unaffordable Metro system in the world. Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri contended that Delhi Metro’s passenger flow has gone up while Delhi Metro MD Mangu Singh cited the examples of other Metros like Lucknow, Chennai and Kochi that have higher fares than Delhi Metro.
Speaking at a function organised by CPWD, the Union Minister said if there is a possibility that Metro ridership is not realising its “potential”, it is because Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is not giving approval for Metro’s phase-IV project.
“I have a story going on today that Metro ridership has fallen, which is complete falsification of facts. Metro ridership has gone up to two lakh and it is going up. If there is a possibility that Metro ridership is not realising its potential, it is because Arvind Kejriwal is not giving me approval for Metro phase-IV,” the Union Minister said.
In February 2016, the AAP Government had given its in-principle approval for the construction work of the phase-IV project, but the Delhi Cabinet is yet to take final decision on it. The CSE in its report said DMRC is the second most unaffordable Metro system in the world in terms of percentage of income spent for using it while asserting the Delhi Metro has received nearly 32 per cent less than the number of daily passengers it had hoped to serve this year. Reacting to the report, Kejriwal said he is “very sad” that such an important means of transport has become out of reach of common man while asserting that all those who have given up Metro are now contributing to Delhi’s pollution by using road transport.
The Minister reiterated that if the Delhi Government did not come on board for Metro’s phase-IV project, his Ministry will find a way. In May this year, Puri had said the Centre would take a decision on the execution of the Metro’s much-awaited phase-IV project if something was “lacking” on the Delhi Government’s side.
Meanwhile, the Delhi Metro called the CSE study misleading and not based on facts and data. “This study is conveniently comparing DMRC with much selected Metros across the world. Why don’t you compare with big Metros,” said Singh. The other cities considered in the report were — Buenos Aires, Cairo, Hanoi, Jakarta, Kiev, Manila, Mexico City and Mumbai.
“Metros like Jakarta do not exist yet. It will come into operation in January 2019. So how could there be comparison with a Metro that isn’t operational,” Singh said. Delhi Metro chief said there are other Metros like Lucknow, Chennai and Kochi within the country that have higher fares than Delhi Metro. So how can it be second most unaffordable Metro in the world?
He also refuted the CSE’s claim that Delhi Metro has received nearly 32 per cent less than the number of daily passengers it had hoped to serve this year, saying its earlier projection included phase-III which has not become operational yet.
“It is seen from the report that ridership of DMRC is 29 lakh as against project ridership of 39 lakh. The 39.5 lakh ridership is projected after completion of phase-III. The phase-III is yet to be fully operational and stabilised. Therefore, any such comparison at this stage, is only misleading and unrealistic,” said Singh.
Secondly, the report claims that 22% of a commuter’s income is going for transportation in the lower income group. That is also an extreme case, he said. “As per our exact figure, a total of Rs 268.84 crore was the actual fare earned in July and the total number of passengers who travelled on the Metro were 7.79 crore.
So the revenue per trip comes to Rs 34.50. His expenditure will be Rs 1,518 per month and average per capita income in Delhi is Rs 27,424, according to economic survey done by Delhi Government,” the DMRC Chief said.
So based on these calculations, 5.53% and not 22% of income of a commuter is spent while travelling on Metro, Singh said. However, Anumita Roy Chowdhury, the Executive Director of the research and advocacy group, clarified that they were talking about the overall picture of the transport system in the report.
The CSE in a report on Tuesday said that it has found that after the fare hike last year, Delhi Metro has become the second-most unaffordable service in the world among the cities that charge less than half a US dollar for a trip. Of nine metropolitan cities across the world where the cost for a 10-km trip is less than half-a-US dollar, the Delhi Metro remains the second-most unaffordable system in terms of percentage of income spent for using it, the CSE study claimed.
