TrafficInfraTech Magazine Linking People Places & Progress
To ensure infrastructure and operation integration, the Government of India has decided to tag appropriate smaller projects with the larger size metro projects, e.g., pedestrianisation and cycling, which are major feeders to Metro Rail network. While sanctioning Phase-III of Delhi Metro for 103km recently at a total cost of about ?`35,242 crore, one of the conditions imposed by Government of Delhi, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, NDMC and the Delhi Cantonment Board has been to ensure proper pedestrian and cycle network in the entire catchment area. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has also been made responsible to launch a Public Cycle Sharing Scheme on the lines of Velibin Paris so that cycles can act as a proper feeder network. Cycle trips have already been estimated to be about 30% of feeder trips to the metro network.
In order to have fare integration, the MoUD has envisaged a National Common Mobility Card for operators of all modes, including parking, across all cities of India. As a first step, the common mobility card can be at city level and then state level under the National architecture specified by Ministry so that integration later on is easy. Delhi has already launched ?More?Delhi? card valid for DMRC network as well as some of its feeder buses.
To have information integration, the Ministry has envisaged a National Public Transport Helpline Number on lines of number ?100? for Police Control Room. It has already taken category one universal access short codes ?155220? and ?155221? from Department of Telecommunications and advised all the State Governments and Public Transport operators to move over to these numbers as Public Transport Helpline Numbers. Once all the operators move on to this common number, commuters would not have to remember different numbers for different operators in different cities and they will find the whole network as an integrated approach.
Before a city proposes a Metro Rail, it should have a ridership of at least a million on any mode of public transport so that the shift to Metro Rail is easier.
Since Metro Rail alone will not suffice for meeting the needs of an efficient public transport system in a city, the Government of India is planning to have Bus Rapid Transit Systems in all 53 million-plus cities at the rate of around 20km per million of population. We will also be supporting Monorail and modern trams as viable alternative transit modes as well as feeders to metro systems.
In order to facilitate this massive expansion of metro rail projects in the country, the Government has also taken up some very important steps. The first is that all metro rail projects, whether within a municipal area or beyond, would be taken under the Central Metro Acts only, namely, the Metro Railways (Construction of Works) Act, 1978 and the Metro Railways (Operation and Maintenance) Act, 2002 which have been extended to whole of India. Some amendments to the Act to make it more clear, especially with regard to Public Private Partnerships and delegating some powers to the State Government, is under progress in consultation with various metro rail administrations.
The Ministry finalised a common set of General Rules and Rules for opening for all metro railways so that each Metro Railway does not have to approach our Ministry for separate rules ? a very time consuming process. These rules shall be notified within a fortnight. Furthermore, it is also envisaged to set up a National Urban Rail Transit Authority to be the standards setting body in the country for Metro Rail as well as to act as the regulator. It is also proposed to set up a Research Design and Standardisation Cell for metro rail projects, so as to develop low cost indigenous technologies for Metro Rail. Special courses on urban transport and planning with specialisation in metro technology are proposed to be taken up in one or two premier institutions like the IITs so as to generate adequate manpower for all these projects.
Nothing that has been mentioned above can be implemented without adequate financing mechanism. Accordingly, innovative financing mechanisms has been envisaged while taking up Delhi Metro Rail Phase-III project which involves not only financing from the multilateral financing institutions like the JICA but also domestic borrowing from various financial institutions like IIFCL etc. duly facilitated by a Government guarantee so as to reduce the rate of interest.
Furthermore, in view of the high capital cost of the metro rail projects, interest subsidy is also envisaged so that the effective rate of interest to the Metro SPV is such that their debt service coverage ratio remains more than one. This interest subsidy is to be serviced through the land value capture along the Metro corridors in the influenced zones where the metro rail projects would be taken up. A dedicated fund created to pool in this value capture would not only service interest subsidy but also generate funds which can be leveraged for taking up more metro rail projects. Contribution from development authorities like DDA has also been sanctioned for Phase-III. This kind of funding pattern is envisaged in future for all the metro rail projects which would be taken up in the country. The Ministry has been inducing the States to encourage land monetization mode of generating part of the financial resources for funding the urban mass transport projects. This would entail revisiting the city master plans too.
There are various reforms relating to urban transport including Transit Oriented Development, which are also being made conditional to the sanction of the Metro Rail projects. Public Private Partnership is envisaged on BOT basis in high density corridors where the ridership is quite high and the corridors are generally elevated. As such, while the aim is to try out Public?Private Partnership in metro rail projects wherever possible, considering the global experience, majority of the cases might be on Government funding route to a significant extent.
The Government is committed to augmenting the public transport through modern and efficient modes in all the cities in India. However, there is a need to drastically bring down the cost of construction and operation.
