AMID WORRIES ABOUT NON-VIABILITY, LOW FOOTFALL IN SMALLER CITIES, BIHAR SEEKS 4 MORE METRO PROJECTS
New Delhi: As the Narendra Modi-led government treads cautiously in approving capital-intensive metro projects in small cities, the Bihar government is planning to write to the Centre for financial assistance to undertake feasibility studies for metro projects in four cities in the state — Muzaffarpur, Gaya, Bhagalpur and Darbhanga.
This comes at a time when several states have been pressing for metro networks in smaller cities — something urban transport experts are cautious about, questioning the financial viability of the projects, which face the risk of low ridership. Most existing networks have low ridership — just 25-30 percent of what was projected when they were planned — a report by IIT Delhi and think tank The Infravision Foundation had found in December last year.
The Bihar cabinet has already given in-principle approval to conduct feasibility studies for metro projects in the four cities mentioned above, which have urban populations ranging between 4 lakh and 6 lakh, and prepare detailed project reports.
“We have written to RITES (Rail India Technical and Economic Service) to do the feasibility studies, along with Alternative Analysis Reports (AAR) for these four cities, which are the main urban centres after Patna,” a senior official of Bihar’s urban development and housing department told ThePrint.
“Once they share the cost of the studies, we will write to the Centre for financial assistance. The plan has been informally conveyed to the Centre, and a proposal will be sent soon, requesting the central government to partly or entirely fund the feasibility study,” the official said.
The metro projects will be developed with funds provided by the Centre and the state government as well as loans from private institutions, the official added. The Janata Dal (United), led by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, is an indispensable ally for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre.
The Bihar government’s impending request comes at a time when metro projects in several big cities, such as Hyderabad, Kochi, Pune, Jaipur and others, are struggling to get adequate ridership. The Centre has been cautious in approving new projects, with around 20 proposals pending before the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
Urban transport experts have been critical of state governments pushing for metro projects in Tier-2 cities, where the daily average trip length is around 3-5 km — much shorter than the ideal average trip length of 10 km or more.
Experts say that metro projects have become a prestige issue for states, and if not planned properly, a project can become a white elephant. They emphasise the need for detailed transport and urban development plans to assess the requirement.
Sebastian Morris, senior professor at Goa Institute of Management and previously with the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, said, “In most cities, metro projects have become just showpieces with not many people using the facility. In India, the transport arrangement is haphazard. The road network is not planned properly, which results in congestion. Due to poor transport planning, these metro projects have, and new ones will, become white elephants.”
On the poor ridership in most operational metro networks in India, Morris said, “The ingress and egress to the metro takes a lot of time, thereby making it not a preferred mode of travel in many cities. The multi-modal connectivity is absent in cities. Unless we provide a seamless connection between other modes of transportation and parking facilities with metro corridors, it is never going to be financially viable and will have low ridership. Apart from the high cost, their social viability (benefit to people) is negative as people continue to use private vehicles for daily commute.”
Jagan Shah, chief executive officer of The Infravision Foundation, said there should be strong justification for developing a metro system in a city as there are huge costs involved. The project has to be looked at from all aspects, including the development plan and employment opportunities it can generate.
“When cities plan for metro projects, there is a need for detailed data analysis about the growth pattern of these cities and the public finance situation. This is necessary to see if the city has the capability to leverage the metro as the backbone of a larger public transport system,” Shah told ThePrint.
“We need to anticipate what kind of economic activities, including industries, a city will have or the kind of employment opportunities that will be made available before planning metro projects. A metro alone can’t be an attraction; it can only enhance the experience of working in a city,” he added.
Referring to the Bihar government’s decision to conduct feasibility studies, Shah said, these proposals were in the early stages of planning and we shouldn’t react adversely, but rather, “see how it goes”.
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Bihar government’s plans
Currently, the Rs 14,000-crore Patna Metro project, which was approved in 2019, is under construction. The first phase of the 33-km project is in the advanced stages and is expected to be ready by next year. Senior Patna Metro Rail Corporation officials said that a portion of the metro corridor would be operational by the end of this year.
According to Bihar government officials, after Patna — the only city in the state with a population of over a million — Muzaffarpur, Gaya, Bhagalpur and Darbhanga are expected to emerge as major urban centres in the next few years.
“These are spread over an area ranging between 21 sq km (Darbhanga) and 49 sq km (Gaya), and are fast developing as major urban centres. The metro projects have been conceived because we are already facing a huge congestion problem as the population has increased due to massive development in the past few years. We need to plan for the future as a lot of infrastructure development will take place in the next few years,” a senior official told ThePrint.
The metro projects, the official added, will also act as catalysts for development as they will create new opportunities for commercial development.
“It is a futuristic way of planning. The metro construction will take at least six-seven years and new developments around the corridors will take place slowly. We need to plan ahead, so that traffic congestion doesn’t become a problem in the future,” the official explained.
Asked about concerns about ridership, given that other, bigger cities are facing the problem of low footfall, the official said, “When people have a convenient mode of transport, they will use it. As far as farebox revenue is concerned, metro systems across the world are unable to generate adequate farebox revenue (from ridership) to meet operational expenses. We will look at property development around the stations to generate revenue. Other details will be worked out once the projects are approved.”
Proposed projects in other states
Currently, India has 905 km of operational metro network, of which over 657 km was added in the last decade. Another 959 km is under various stages of construction, according to the housing and urban affairs ministry’s response in Parliament in February this year.
Since 2018, several other states and Union territories, including Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Jammu and Kashmir, have sent proposals to the Centre for metro corridors in cities like Bhopal, Indore, Nashik and Srinagar, among others.
The BJP-led Uttar Pradesh government, it is learnt, is preparing detailed project reports for the development of metro projects in Prayagraj, Bareilly and Jhansi.
“Last year, the state government allocated funds to do feasibility studies in five cities. The UP Metro Rail Corporation (UPMRC) has engaged RITES to prepare the detailed project reports (DPRs) for Prayagraj, Bareilly and Jhansi. The DPR for Prayagraj has been submitted to the state government and the other two are under process. We are planning to submit the proposals to the Centre for financial assistance,” said a senior UPMRC official.
The UP government is also pressing the Centre to approve the second corridor of Lucknow metro, which is around 12 km long and passes through densely populated areas in Old Lucknow, the official added.
In Uttar Pradesh, metro projects have already been approved for 10 cities, including Meerut, Gorakhpur, Ghaziabad, Kanpur, Lucknow and Noida.
“We have a meeting with Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs officials next week in this regard,” said the official.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
2024-07-05T11:35:01Z dg43tfdfdgfd