Vandana Ramnani Moneycontrol News
Debunking a report that claimed that there has been a fall of 4 lakh in ridership for the Delhi Metro, Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister said the report was ‘irresponsible’ and was ‘falsifying facts’.
He further said that not only was the Indian metro network comparable to metro systems in London and New York in terms of sustainability, efficiency and security, but it was also the lowest priced both in India and around the globe.
“These are irresponsible studies that people put out without looking at the facts. India’s commitment to green and urbanisation is total,” he said at CII”s 13th Sustainability Summit held in the Capital.
The Centre of Science and Environment (CSE) had on Tuesday said the Delhi Metro had received nearly 32 percent fewer passengers than it had forecast this year. The research and advocacy group attributed the performance to the fare hike.
“The report is produced by people reasonably credible but they have an agenda. They have compared not an orange with an orange but an elephant with a donkey and they have ended up completely falsifying the facts,” he said at the event.
He said that the Delhi Metro had not increased fares for almost nine years. The fare fixation committee decided in 2016 to carry out the fare increase in two parts – the first was in May 2017 and second part was in October 2017.
“It has so happened that the ridership prior to the fare increase was 27 lakh … if the report was correct, it should have come down to 23 lakh. Today the ridership is over 29 lakh, it has obviously gone up. So where has the Metro ridership fallen?
Taking a dig at Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, Puri said that "if somebody wants to be 'sad', he must be sad about the fact that the other public transport, that is, the DTC which has a sanction of 11000 buses is 7000 short."
Kejriwal on Wednesday had said that he felt 'sad' that the Delhi Metro had become unaffordable for the common man after the fare hikes. "As CM of Delhi, I feel 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," Kejriwal said.
The DMRC on Wednesday also slammed the CSE report, saying its earlier projection included Phase-3 which has not become operational as yet. Delhi Metro has called the study "misleading and not based on facts and data". "This study is conveniently comparing DMRC with select metros across the world. Why don't you compare with big metros," said DMRC MD Mangu Singh.
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.
"It is seen from the report that ridership of DMRC is 27 lakh as against projected ridership of 39 lakh. The 39.5 lakhs ridership is projected after completion of Phase-3. The Phase -3 is yet to be fully made operational and stabilized. Therefore, any such comparison at this stage, is only misleading and unrealistic," Singh added.
The CSE study had said that of the 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.
As per the calculation, the study says that commuters in Delhi spend about 14 percent of their income on Metro rides that is lower only to 25 percent spent by commuters in Hanoi.
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