Wise to keep Bhubaneswar Metro Rail project on hold

That a relatively small city of just 1.25 million people, Bhubaneswar shows irritating traffic snarls every evening, speaks about the deficiency in Urban Transportation System Planning. A hugely expensive and avoidable flyover at Raj Mahal square on Raj Path is a text-book example of bad planning. The arterial roads are narrow, deficiently lit and remain ever vulnerable to unregulated commercial activities almost on the fringes of the roads. It looks absolutely clear that certain parts of the city would be impassable in the evening within a couple of years. It seems the city at any point of time has more two-wheelers on its roads than denizens on streets. 

Little consideration is shown to zoning disciplines and we get a pizza joint next to a shop selling car batteries. Footpaths for decades have remained out of bounds for pedestrians. While this chaos continues and the denizens have accepted the mess as the new normal, they are suddenly greeted with an announcement of a Metro service for the city -- in perfect sync with the political philosophy of the ruling dispensation-- "Aapon Maane Kushi To " ( Are you all happy ?) . And there is sudden euphoria. There is now celebration in the air. The announcement, however, did evoke a thoughtful response of disbelief as well and one BJP leader-- a Union Minister-- who reminded the Government that the project needs money not to remain virtual. 

My worry, however, is on a different issue. Those of us who have the handicap of  strong memory are today a worried lot. When our urban planners demolished some years ago,  the ancient round shaped traffic island at the iconic Raj Mahal Square that was ensuring an orderly flow of traffic in different directions, many thought they would come up with a state of the art traffic management system. They, however, started digging the place instead, like an archeologist who had gone mad. They dug deep and a huge crater was created in the midst of Raj Path that remained in that shape for perhaps months, if not years. The traffic arrangement, consequently, turned bizarre and cars moved in the speed of an Olive Ridley Turtle on the sands of Gahirmatha. They perhaps did not dare to displease the lobby that saw money in building a flyover but could not decide if the flyover would be on JanPath or RajPath or both. Finally they decided to have it on Raj Path which was totally avoidable. The idea of a seamless traffic-flow in all four directions was hastily abandoned and the traffic management was left entirely to the skill of the person on the driving seat -- either in a car or on a bike. The result is we have an ugly arrangement that hurts sensitivity. 

Then, all of a sudden, came the big announcement about Metro. The idea is to start the facility from the Airport. One doesn’t know why. It may be because Heathrow Airport has it. From the Airport, it seems the Metro would invade Forest Park Area, Sishu Bhavan Crossing, run along or over Janpath upto/beyond the Railway Station, then take a turn to left and go towards Chandrasekharpur, Raghunathpur and then up to Trishulia near the Kathjodi River. The Metro would have to cross the Raj Mahal flyover, more flyovers over the National Highway and perhaps high-voltage transmission lines too. These hurdles would necessarily mean that the Metro would be running quite high from the ground level. It could be at least 15 metres from the ground but could be higher.  

How would the construction be carried out without seriously affecting-- almost paralysing-- the traffic on those few arterial city roads that presently serve as the lifeline of the city? Soon after construction commences, there could be craters in hundreds on these roads for laying foundations for pillars to support Rails for Metro to run its course of 26 kms and serve 20 stations. Till Metro really runs, how will the denizens move on these roads? No one seems to be addressing this issue.

The other issues relate to the cost and the commercial viability. Financial viability of capital-intensive metro rail projects in two-tier cities with average trip length of not more than three to five years is doubtful. The daily ridership on the 23 km network of the first Metro corridor of Lucknow has been between 75,000 and 90,000 passengers even after four years of being operational. To breakeven, the Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation Limited corporation requires a daily ridership of 125,000 passengers and  200,000 passengers a day  to repay loans taken for the network worth Rs 6928 crore. India has by now built metro rail network in 20 cities, stretching 774 km, but we are still grappling with the issue on how to make this capital-intensive, mass rapid transit system financially viable. The assumption is viability would depend on the robust income it could garner from non-ticketing sources. This has not materialised. The cities that have operational metros today are Delhi, the seven NCR (national capital region) hubs, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Jaipur, Kochi, Lucknow, Kanpur, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Nagpur and Pune. There seems now a consensus that metros are not meant to be financially viable. 
Going by the figures of riders in Lucknow, it is more likely that for Bhubaneswar, the daily ridership could be around 25,000 and the state support to run the metro would have to be huge for years. During the construction, that could take some years to be completed, the woes of people on the road would multiply. Against this scenario, it seems worthwhile, even at this stage; Government should listen to what India Rail is saying. Vande Metro is yet another new facility proposed to be rolled out by India Railways. The train will offer a rapid shuttle-like experience to the passengers and will be operated between cities that are around 100 km apart. Vande Metro will have a very high frequency-- run 4 to 5 times a day. Travel is expected to be affordable for daily commuters. Such a facility is being considered to operate between Puri and Bhubaneswar. Hopefully it could cover Cuttack as well. They would use the existing railway-line for Vande Metro service. This arrangement would provide a metro service to Bhubaneswar and should be supported. The state government would do well to expedite widening of important roads, build new ones where pressure on traffic is quite high and keeps city’s surface transport moving at reasonable speed. Wise it would be to keep the metro project on hold till better times.

(DISCLAIMER: This is an opinion piece. The views expressed are the author’s own and have nothing to do with OTV’s charter or views. OTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.)