CSE report misleading, says DMRC
The Delhi Metro on Wednesday termed as “misleading” a report by a green body, which claimed DMRC is the second most unaffordable metro system in the world in terms of percentage of income spent for using it.
The DMRC rubbished the report of Centre for Science and Environment ( CSE), which also claimed the 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- 3 which has not become operational as yet.
However, Anumita Roy Chowdhury, the
If there is a possibility that Metro ridership is not realising its ‘ potential’, it is because CM Arvind Kejriwal is not giving approval for Metro’s phase- IV — Hardeep Puri, Union minister
Executive Director of the research and advocacy group, clarified that they were talking about the overall picture of the transport system in the report. “Our public transport system is not functioning optimally and there needs to be a strategy to increase the ridership so that people’s dependence on their personal vehicle reduces,” she said, adding that they took other cities into consideration too. The CSE in a report on Tuesday said 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.
Delhi Metro has called the study “misleading and not based on facts and data”. “This study is conveniently comparing DMRC with very selected metros across the world. Why don’t you compare with big metros,” said DMRC MD Mangu Singh.
The other cities considered in the report were Buenos Aires, Cairo, Hanoi, Jakarta, Kiev, Manila, Mexico City, Mumbai and New Delhi “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,” Mr Singh said. Mr Singh said that there are other metros like Lucknow, Chennal and Kochi within the country that have higher fares than Delhi Metro so how can it be second most unaffordable Metro in the world.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said he felt ‘ sad’ that the Metro train has become unaffordable for the common man following the fare hikes.
“As CM of Delhi, I feel very sad that such an important means of transport has become out of reach of common man. All those who have given up metro are now contributing to Delhi’s pollution by using road- based transport,” he said in a tweet.
The Delhi Metro, according to a report by the Centre for Science and Environment, is the secondmost unaffordable in the world among the metro systems after Hanoi in Vietnam.
The Metro lost over 40 per cent of its ridership following two fare hikes in 2017. The Delhi Metro’s ridership declined sharply, falling by 4.2 lakh since the hike.
The metro currently has a daily ridership of about 26 lakh, while a 2016 study had projected that the train services would be used by about 40 lakh people in 2018.
The CSE report added that the decline in the number of people opting to travel via Delhi Metro also has severe implications for the environment.
Delhi already experiences severe air pollution and extreme traffic congestion, and that’s only set to become worse if people opt out of the metro service in favour of personal vehicles.
Greenhouse gas emissions could spiral, leading to significant healthdamaging implications for people.
However, the Centre and the DMRC have rubbished the report as “misleading and falsification of facts”, saying the study compares “very selected metros”.
Aam Aadmi Party spokesperson Pankaj Gupta said Delhi’s ranking is “shameful”.