Metro Rail News December 2016

planning. For the successful
completion and implementation
of such projects huge
capital investments, long
gestation period and complex
technology is the need of hour.
Research shows that the ideal
share of public transport
should be around 70% in
India's metro cities, which at
present is only around 35%–
40%. India is looking to create a
world class infrastructure with
its existent Kolkata and Delhi
Metros.
In addition we do have the
Metro presence in Mumbai,
Bengaluru, Hyderabad,
Chennai, Jaipur, Gurgaon and
Kochi. Additionally, the
proposals for MRTS are being
chalked out for Pune,
Chandigarh, Ahmedabad,
Kanpur, Ludhiana, Bhopal,
Indore and Faridabad, which
may be implemented in the
next few years.
Key Considerations
MRTS projects are extremely
large projects. The key
attributes for this are finance,
logistics, extensive data, study
of economic structures,
profiling topography, travel
routes, major traffic corridors,
detailed surveys etc. Another
very important aspect is to
learn from its previous
limitations and imperfections.
We can bring down our
operation and maintenance
costs by further developing of
our in-house technology. This
would be a large milestone in
order to make such projects
self-sufficient.
Cost Factor
At present Metro projects are
catering to cities with
population of more than four
million people. The costs are
directly proportional to the
areas which are proposed to
serve underground, elevated or
at grade alignment projects.
The high cost of metros is
justified by its very high
carrying capacity of passengers
at a very high speed and with
minimum pollution.
Initially the funding of these
projects was done through
Public-Private Partnership
(PPP) funding Model, Delhi
Metro model or State / Central
Government funding. The
concept of Liberalisation,
Privatisation and Globalisation
(called the LPG model)
introduced lately seems to be
the most viable option to carry
out such large projects across
the country. Under this model
the private sector developers
are encouraged through
viability gap funding scheme
wherein 60% of the cost is
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borne by private investor and
40% is borne by the
government in terms of grants.
Metros are known to serve the
all sections of society at an
affordable cost. Due to the
huge capital costs involved in
the implementation of MRTS it
is suggested that government
could participate through
equity or meeting one time
viability gap financing after
detailed evaluation. For
funding metros the
government should provide
infrastructure and the
operating cost and cost of
rolling stock must be met by
users and beneficiaries. Where
private players of repute are
involved, the project could be
sealed with private
participation based on detailed
conditions and period of
concession specified. Land will
be a major issue in realising the
project for which the
involvement of parastatal
agencies will be critical. Sale of
air space, advertisement rights,
contribution of major
commercial whole sale markets
which generate huge volume of
traffic, levying of external
development charges on
builders and promoters and a
dedicated fund for MRTS can
aid in the funding.
Metro Rail News | December 2016 | www.metrorailnews.in 35