Technical snag hits Delhi Metro Friday, 16 August 2013 - 1:37pm IST | Place: New Delhi | Agency: IANS

Hundreds of passengers were left stranded when a technical fault hit Delhi Metro's Blue Line between Karol Bagh and R.K Ashram Marg stations, resulting in overcrowding on the platforms. Large crowds piled up at platforms all along the busy route that links Dwarka in west Delhi with Noida and Vaishali in Uttar Pradesh. "Metro services of Line 3 (Dwarka-Noida City Centre) and Line 4 (from Yamuna Bank to Vaishali) were running in three short loops following a technical problem in the overhead electrification line," said a Delhi Metro official. The crowds were thick at Rajiv Chowk, the busiest Delhi Metro interchange through which the Blue Line passes. "The trains are plying from Dwarka Sector 21 to Karol Bagh Metro station and Barakhamba Metro station to Noida City Centre and Vaishali. As the technical snag is between R.K.Ashram Marg and Karol Bagh Metro station the trains run on single loop from Karol Bagh to Barakhamba Metro station and not vice versa," the official said. A Metro official said regular announcements were made at all the stations about the technical problem and delayed running of trains. The 49 km Blue Line that covers 43 stations in some of the most populous parts of the capital, is the longest Delhi Metro network.

SWOT Analysis Strengths

Cost-effective mode of transport for the general public of Delhi.

Reduce congestion on roads making movement easier.

Reduce atmospheric pollution to a great level making the environment healthy.

Ultra-modern technology and visually striking design, dynamic and modern, competitive and World Class.

Reduce travel time: One hundred per cent punctual operations.

Safer Mode of transport for Women.

The voluntary International Standardization Organization (ISO) 14,000 certification. Weakness

Metro considerably more expensive than the bus.

Less ridership than estimated.

High development cost

Displaced many economic backward people.

Difficulties in acquiring land and Opportunity

Revenue from property development and advertisements.

Potential to achieve higher ridership.

Tax rebate given to the DMRC because of the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

The success of the Delhi Metro has encouraged other Indian cities to seriously attempt tointroduce Metro systems.

The next Metro line in the city will be 10-15 per cent cheaper than the previous phasesbased on the learning curve theory. Threats

A struggle on the part of those being displaced, and protests, petitions, hunger strikes,negotiations and legal action have all been initiated.

Security threat.

Risk of cost overruns and ridership shortfalls.

Increase in cost of the parts.

Page | 13city. To prepare itself for this, the city is planning a major overhaul of its urban infrastructure aswell as its sporting facilities.Will the event lead to rampant and unchecked development, possibly unplanned?Is the amount spent on such events worth it?There are very good reasons for why developing nations are more adversely impacted by suchevents. They can be listed as:1. High infrastructural development costs.2. Under-utilization of facilities post event.3. High opportunity cost of capital.4. Unable to attract large numbers of spectators.The emphasis of the present Rapid Transport system is now on the Metro. However moreimportantly, Phase II, aimed

at extending the network much further in the city, is already underconstruction, and is set to be ready before 2010. This phase is going to require massiveinvestment, over Rs 8000 Crores. The second phase is going to provide a vital transport link toEast Delhi, with a dedicated Games Village station. The metro, which is already beginning to have an impact on the citys congested roads, will b e able to make a much larger impact as itsnetwork and reach grows. The second phase, originally planned to be ready by 2010-2011 is nowgoing to be operational by 2009, due to the 2010 Games.

The Total Revenue for the metro for the year 2007-2008 and the forecasted revenue for the year2010.Figure 6: Total Revenue Generated

The Revenue increases at a rate of 12% from the year 2007-2009.

Revenue increases drastically at a rate of 38% from 2009 to 2010 .This increase isbecause of the Commonwealth Games -The advertisement revenue and the ridershipincreases drastically in year 2010.

The revenue increases is because of alone, DMRCs revenue generation would go beyond Rs8.5bn from lead corporate outlets, ATMs, etc. Through sale of tickets, the DMRC is

Page | 14expected to earn nearly Rs7bn and about Rs6bn from space allocations to corporateadvertisers.Figure 7: The Ridership impact taking the Commonwealth games into consideration.The red line gives the ridership revenue taking the commonwealth games into accountAnd the blue line gives the revenue generated without taking commonwealth games inconsideration.

The revenue created in the year 2010 has increased drastically in the year 2010 as theprice of the ticket increases considerably pertaining to the commonwealth games.

Ridership increases due to the increase in the foreign tourists. But the increase is not thatdrastic as not many foreign tourists turn to developing countries to watch the matchesbecause of the state of infrastructure.

The ridership dips in the year 2011 and the infrastructure created is underutilized.

DMRC should keep the cost of the project under control as it might not even earn thefixed cost. Planning in future must be done keeping a realistic view.Figure 8: Advertisement Revenue

The advertisement revenue forms the major portion of the revenue earned by the metro asthe ridership is not up to the mark.

The advertisement revenue earned increases as many corporate houses pay high prices forthe advertisements as India will be in spotlight at that point of time.

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We can infer that the DMRC would suitably allocate rental and advertisement space tohigher bidders after it has accomplished the metro projects in early 2010 especiallybefore the commencement of forthcoming Commonwealth Games.

The rate at which revenue increase will decrease subsequently after the commonwealthgames. Conclusion The Delhi Metro provides multiple benefits: reduction in air pollution, time saving to passengers,reduction in accidents, reduction in traffic congestion and fuel savings. There are incrementalbenefits and costs to a number of economic agents: government, private transporters, passengers,general public and unskilled labor. Delhi Metro which is part of MRTS (Mass Rapid TransportSystem) is an economically viable, time saving, environment friendly mode of transport for themost populous city of India.

The demand supply analysis shows that in the future Delhi Metro will be a monopoly.

The analysis shows that the break even will be achieved in the year 2028.

The commuter travel time saved over the period will increase in comparison with othermodes of transport.

The common wealth games scheduled in 2010 will increase the ridership thus giving aboost to the total revenue. References

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshowarchive.cms?msid=2929040http://delhiplanning.nic.inhttp://w ww.delhigovt.nic.inhttp://www.delhimetrorail.comhttp://www.niua.orghttp://web.iitd.ac.inhttp://ww w.nctr.usf.eduhttp://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de Effect of Delhi Metro on other modes of transport Buses constitute for about 1.2% of vehicles on road in Delhi. The number of buses running onDelhi roads was 42639 as on 31 st march 2007. The number of buses increases by 8% every year.Buses currently meet the mass transport needs of Delhi. The ridership by Buses is 60% of thetotal ridership. Overall about 5 million people travel by bus each day in Delhi. The average triplength, which is about 14 kms takes about 55-60 minutes, and these figures are increasing everyyear because of increase in traffic. The bus service is hence unreliable, over-crowded and alsotime consuming with long waiting periods at bus stops. This has lead to increase in number of personal vehicles, hence adding to the traffic and this cycle continues.Delhi is predominantly dependent on road transport, with the railways catering to only about1%of the local traffic. The ring rail network in Delhi is grossly underutilized. Buses cater to about60% of the total demand while personal vehicles account for 30%. Buses constitute only 1.2% of the total number of vehicles, but cater to 60% of the total traffic load. Among personalizedvehicles, motor cycles and scooters comprise about 64.5% of the total number of vehicles inDelhi, while cars and jeeps account for 26.6% of the total vehicles. Savings in fuel consumption The savings in fuel consumption is due to the diversion of a part of the Delhi road traffic toMetro and reduced congestion to vehicles on the roads. Use of electricity for the Metro willreduce the petrol and CNG consumption that could result in savings of foreign exchange and willalso reduce air pollution. Fuel savings arising out of the Metro could result in the savings of foreign exchange for the Indian economy given that a very large proportion of domestic demandfor petroleum products in India is met out of imports. Saving of Passenger time with Metro and without Metro S c = Average Speed in congestion situationS d = Average Speed in decongested situationD = Daily Run of Vehicles (in km)Time taken in congested situation (Without Metro) = D/Sc,Time taken in decongested situation (With Metro) = D/Sd

Page | 12Table 6: Daily Time Taken by a busFigure 4Table 7: Daily Time Taken by a busFigure 5The above chart shows the comparison for time saved for the bus and auto travel. D/S c showstime saved in case of congestion i.e. without Metro and D/S d shows time saved in case of Metro.The time saved in the later case in more because of reduced congestion on the roads. Also as theno of vehicles on the road reduces the average speed will also increase. The difference betweenthe D/S d and D/S c curve shows the time saved because of introduction of MRTS. Overall thisshows that one of the main objectives of MRTS to decongest the Delhi roads will be achieved inthe due course of time.