Metro rail systems: Boon or bane for urban India?
Indian cities will begin operating metro rail transport systems in seven cities, which taking the total number of cities with such systems to 11. But some fear that the sleek trains will be unaffordable for the vast majority of city dwellers, where 77 per cent of the population lives on less than 20 rupees (S$ 0.45) a day.
Mumbai - based civil engineer Sudhir Badami, said that the metro transport system might be viable to some extent in big cities, but certainly not in smaller cities. They are already struggling to find money to provide their basic facilities such as piped drinking water, sanitation, education and health care.
Others also think that building a metro network takes too long and is too disruptive. In contrast a bus system can be put in place within a year with minimal disturbance. They also believed a well – planned bus system can carry 30,000 commuters an hour. It is the same number as a metro rail system.
In contrast, the director of urban development ministry in New Delhi, Prakash Singh said that buses are not feasible in some cities. He thought that cities needs additional land to widen existing roads and create a dedicated bus corridor. But, a separate, dedicated corridor was carved out from the existing road and ended up creating chaos on the road as other vehicle had to make do with much narrower road.
In my opinion, the government in India should still create the metro rail transport system but with subsidiary from government. Subsidiary from the government will allow city dwellers to use the metro. Government could collect the money of the subsidiary from increasing the taxes (middle to upper stuff) or make loan to other country. Although it may effects the country, this investment will make a huge advantage of India itself.
By create the metro, people in India could use a faster transportation, so they won’t waste their time (bear in mind time is also costly). It will also reduce the road congestion in India itself which will also be a good advantage for car drivers. A result that will influence India because of 2 advantages above is, economy in India will improve a lot. Because people could move easily, trading in India will become faster. I also believe it definitely improve India’s economy not only individual but also governmental, this is the reason why I mention above that the metro as an investment.