Date:19/04/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/19/stories/2008041959210300.htm

Kerala - Kochi

Metro will revolutionalise Kochi’s public transport, feels study

Staff Reporter

Delhi Metro had a positive socio-economic and environmental impact

Photo: H. Vibhu

CONGESTED: Lack of a comfortable, reliable and non-polluting mode of public transport such as the metro-rail has led to a phenomenal increase in the number of private cars, taxis and two-wheelers in Kochi, causing massive traffic snarls. A scene from Vytilla on Friday.

KOCHI: With some Kochiites unconvinced about the benefits of metro-rail over road transport, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation – the implementing agency for the Kochi metro-rail project, has come up with data on how it revolutionised the public transport system in Delhi and provided commuters with a non-polluting, affordable and a comfortable mode of travelling.

Each passenger in the Delhi metro-rail saves an average of 66 minutes daily on commuting. From 2002 to 2007, this has resulted in a total saving of Rs. 725 crores for metro commuters, as their earning capacity time (the time that they would have otherwise wasted on congested roads) increased.

The Delhi Metro also resulted in a fall in consumption of petrol, diesel and CNG by 57,858 tonnes, from 2002 till 2007. In addition, it is estimated that the fall in number of vehicles due to the commissioning of the first phase of the project prevented 28,800 tonnes of carbon dioxide from being emitted into the atmosphere every year. These are just a few of the findings in a socio-economic and environmental benefit study of the project, conducted recently by the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI). The findings gave a fillip to work on metro-rail projects in over a dozen metropolitan cities in the country.

The 9,876 trees that had to be cut for construction of Phase-I (that covers 65 km of the total 414 km of rails proposed under the master plan) could have absorbed about 220 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year. Thus, the Delhi Metro prevented the emission of 130 times the carbon dioxide that these trees could have absorbed.

The capital cost of Phase I has been estimated as Rs.10,571 crore, the full cost of which would be recovered by 2013. If the social and economic benefits are quantified, then the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) helped Delhi commuters save Rs. 2072.51 crore by the end of 2007. The amount has been arrived at by quantifying the savings on passenger time, fuel cost, reduction in capital and operating cost of vehicles, reduction in environmental damage, accidents prevented and less maintenance cost on road infrastructure.

Moving over to road-traffic conditions, there was a progressive reduction in the daily demand for passenger vehicles because of people shifting to the Metro for commuting. Between 2002 and 2007, the Metro carried passengers who would have otherwise had to commute daily through congested roads in 40,000 vehicles - cars, buses, two-wheelers, auto-rickshaws etc. This system of mass rapid transport also helped save 476 lives (people who would have died in road accidents) during the five-year period. The CRRI study also found that the air quality inside the Metro trains is better than in other modes of public transport, including cars, and the outside environment. The total suspended particulates (TSP) inside the Metro coaches was found to be about 280 micrograms per cubic metre of air (ug/m3) while this figure was 350 ug/m3 in cars, more than 400 ug/m3 in buses and about 290 ug/m3 for pedestrians.