New Delhi: The Delhi government’s free bus ride scheme for women kicked off last week, but the ruling Aam Aadmi Party’s proposal for free metro rides is yet to see the light of the day.
In an exclusive interview to ThePrint, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) Managing Director Dr Mangu Singh pointed out two reasons why the implementation of the scheme was delayed — fixing fares is not in the DMRC’s hands, and the current technology has scope for misuse, and needs to be updated.
Singh said once the fare fixation committee takes a decision on fares, it would take another eight months for the scheme to be implemented.
“The metro fare system is actually a technology-based system; it is not manual where the person and can stand and identify whether the beneficiary is a woman or any other beneficiary. The current smart card is transferable and anyone can use it,” Singh said.
Speaking about the updated technology needed for the scheme, he said: “The smart card will be non-transferable; it will have some identification of a certain person, and the benefit will be available only to that person.
“Even a different coloured card simply can’t solve the issue; it can’t work on trust only.”
Concessions to other categories of people, including senior citizens, persons with disabilities and students will also be decided based on feedback from the fare fixation committee, he said.
Also read: ‘Metro Man’ Sreedharan calls Kejriwal govt’s free metro ride move an election gimmick
Last-mile connectivity
The issue of last-mile connectivity — from metro stations to people’s homes — is one of the key issues related to the metro, and Singh said tenders have been floated for 400 mini-buses.
“We were testing the market. Today, one can’t go by diesel-operated buses; these products are not readily available, as we noticed during the bids that we floated. We received the bid at a very high cost, and realised it wasn’t a very viable option as it would require huge viability gap funding with the government,” he said.
Now, based on the Union Heavy Industries Ministry’s subsidy on electric vehicles, a fresh tender for 100 buses has been floated. But Singh added that “resorting to smaller vehicles like e-rickshaws, e-autos, (and) cab aggregators like Uber and Ola, is a better option… as service is easily available right outside metro stations”.
Also read: Making metro, bus rides free for women not right politics: Gautam Gambhir hits out at AAP
Ridership
Delhi Metro’s ridership has been a constant source of debate — while the DMRC maintains that the ridership has only risen, several media reports based on RTI applications show a decline.
Singh explained that this was because the mechanism to calculate ridership had evolved.
“If a person travelled from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’ by taking an auto to the station and then taking the metro, and the same on the way back, it was taken as the metro contributing only to 1/3rd of travel. The truth is the metro is actually contributing to 80 per cent of the commute in that journey,” he said.
Singh said a passenger entering the metro system would be counted as one until he or she exited it — since the same rider could be using multiple lines, it would still not increase ridership figures. This is why there was a dire need to look at the number of journeys instead of the number of riders.
However, he agreed that the numbers of riders weren’t increasing as expected, despite the expansion of the metro network.
Also read: BJP against free Delhi Metro rides as it wants to keep women at home: AAP’s Raghav Chadha
Phase-IV
Singh said the long-delayed Phase-IV of the metro was an extension of Phase-III, and the DMRC had learnt from its deficiencies.
However, he also pointed out that land in Delhi had become extremely costly, which made it challenging for the metro to expand and build new depots. The solution, he said, is to build more depots on the existing network. “This is where there will be dual-layer or double-decker viaducts, and similarly, underground metro stations,” Singh said.
Pedestrian-friendly stations
Delhi’s Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal has asked the DMRC to make 40 metro stations pedestrian-friendly in a time-bound manner, and Singh said the DMRC has been proactively working on it.
“Phase-III metro stations such as Nehru Enclave, Greater Kailash and Chirag Delhi are organised. However, stations from Phase-I and Phase-II need to be looked into. This is why the DMRC is drawing out a plan wherein areas outside the metro stations and close to them will also be made walker (pedestrian)-friendly,” he said.
However, Singh added that two things will be decided in a bit — who will implement the guidelines and where the money will come from. He said the process will be completed in two months.
Mohalla clinics to come up at 86 metro stations
Several metro stations in Delhi will soon have Mohalla clinics, the AAP’s flagship healthcare scheme.
The DMRC and the AAP have jointly selected 86 locations in and around metro stations. While 12 of these sites — including Shahdara, R.K. Ashram Marg, Karol Bagh, Chhattarpur and Badarpur Border — can be taken over to set up the clinics at any point, 74 others would need clearance from the original owners of the land.
Also read: DTC estimated to lose Rs 300 crore/year if AAP’s free ride scheme for women is implemented
THIS IS A BOGUS PLAN.
ONLY DOGS LIKE THESE TYPES OF PLAN.
The solution of DMRC says including a tech improvement for making women’s metro travel free while the easy and quick way out is making a separate entry gate where no punching is required with guards taking care that no male is there in that queue.
This way the DMRC doesn’t need to update its tech, just a tiny amendment in infrastructure i.e a separate entrance for women
The solution of DMRC says including a tech improvement for making women’s metro travel free while the easy and quick way out is making a separate entry gate where no punching is required with guards taking care that no male is there in that queue.
This way the DMRC doesn’t need to update its tech, just a tiny amendment in infrastructure i.e a separate entrance for women