Mumbai Metro-1 Corridor: Four years on...
Mired in controversies, the Metro-1 corridor, which completed 4 years of operation last week, took too long to conclude. While arbitration over cost of construction continues, increased ridership gives rise to new dilemmas. DNA tries to find the way ahead
Surrounded in knee-deep controversies ever since the construction of the city's first Metro corridor started around 10 years ago, the Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar Metro-1 corridor completed four years of its operations last week. It has carried more than 41 crore passengers in the past four years by operating more than 5 lakh services and running more than 57 lakh km. However, with increasing ridership, there is strong demand for extending the number of coaches or the frequency of Metro during both peak and non-peak hours, opine commuters and transport experts.
The Mumbai Metro-1 is operated by Reliance Infrastructure-led Mumbai Metro One Private Limited (MMOPL) that began its services in June 2014. Metro-1 is the eighth densest Metro corridor in the world and is the first Metro corridor constructed on Public Private Partnership (PPP) model wherein MMOPL has 69 per cent stakes, France-based Veolia has 5 per cent stakes, and the remaining 26 per cent stakes lie with the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).
Ridership pattern
Mumbai Metro-1 took 398 days to reach its first 100 million ridership starting from June 08, 2014. It took 388 days for the second 100 million ridership, 337 days for the third 100 million ridership followed by 300 days for its fourth 100 million ridership. In terms of daily weekday average ridership it has increased from around 2.50 lakh passengers per day to now crossing 4 lakh passengers at times.
A trend of increase of ridership on short distance routes, namely Andheri and Western Express Highway, followed by the route between Andheri and Azad Nagar has been observed. The ridership increased by 48 per cent and 45 per cent, respectively in March 2018 as against March 2017. Additionally, the year 2017-18 witnessed a growth of 13 per cent in ridership for the entire Metro-1 corridor, when compared to ridership in the same period last year.
Increase rakes or frequency:
Dattatray Gosavi, who takes the Metro daily, says, "I travel by Metro-1 daily between Chakala and Saki Naka. There are several advantages of travelling by Metro-1, such as saving time and money, besides being guaranteed comfortable air-conditioned travel. However, I also feel that security checking is not strict enough, and the X-ray scanning machines also do not work at times. With increase in ridership, I have noticed that there's over-crowding during peak hours these days."
Rupali Salunkhe, another commuter, said, "I reside in Thane and have to travel to my office in Andheri daily. I having being travelling to and from Ghatkopar to Andheri for the past one year. My experience has been rather pleasant, considering my other option would be to change train from Dadar. While travelling in peak hours doesn't bother me so much because of the dedicated ladies' coaches, the general compartment remains very crowded and more coaches can be added or frequency of trains can be increased to ease this out."
Mayur Misra, a resident of Kharghar, said, "I have been travelling from Ghatkopar to Marol daily since 2015. Not much has changed, except that increase in ridership during peak hours has lead to over crowding. Thankfully, due to the air conditioning, we do not feel the heat as much. I think they should either increase frequency or add more coaches to solve the issue. Crowding also results in slow entry and exit to Metro stations. I believe the entry gates in Delhi Metro are better than that of Mumbai's."
Delays in making Mumbai's first Metro operational
The initial planning of having a Metro network was conceptualised in the year 2004, followed by the bidding for the first Metro in Mumbai starting in 2006. In the year 2007, MMOPL was awarded the contract, after which construction work started in 2008. It was finally completed and made operational in June 2014. There were allegations that delays by the state government in handing over the land for the project resulted in delays in constructing Mumbai's first Metro. MMOPL and MMRDA also got engaged in a dispute over the actual construction cost of Metro-1.
Ever since Metro-1 was in its construction stage, it has been mired in controversies relating to delay in getting land from the state government, slow pace of construction, fixing fares, naming the Metro, and the actual construction cost, followed by MMRDA asking the Comptroller Auditor General of India (CAG) to audit accounts of MMOPL to ascertain it.
The MMOPL and the MMRDA are engaged in an arbitration with each other over the construction cost of Metro-1. MMOPL says due to delays, the actual construction cost of Metro-1 crossed Rs 4,000 crore, but MMRDA believes the actual cost to be somewhere around Rs 2,300 crore.
Further, the MMOPL had also proposed increasing the fares. However, it was challenged by the MMRDA in the Bombay High Court, and as of now, there is a stay on increasing the fares. The Central government plans to form a Fare Fixation Committee to decide on the same. The MMRDA also opines that MMOPL should charge fares as per what was agreed by it in the concession agreement — that was around Rs 9 to Rs 15.
Commuters’ Suggest
Dattatray Gosavi: “I travel by Metro-1 daily between Chakala and Saki Naka. There are several advantages of travelling by Metro-1, such as saving time and money, besides being guaranteed comfortable air-conditioned travel. However, I also feel that security checking is not strict enough, and the X-ray scanning machines also do not work at times. With increase in ridership, I have noticed that there’s over-crowding during peak hours these days.”
Rupali Salunkhe: “I reside in Thane and have to travel to my office in Andheri daily. I having being travelling to and from Ghatkopar to Andheri for the past one year. My experience has been rather pleasant, considering my other option would be to change train from Dadar. While travelling in peak hours doesn’t bother me so much because of the dedicated ladies’ coaches, the general compartment remains very crowded and more coaches can be added to ease this out.”
Mayur Misra: “I have been travelling from Ghatkopar to Marol daily since 2015. Not much has changed, except that increase in ridership during peak hours has lead to over crowding. Thankfully, due to the air conditioning, we do not feel the heat as much. I think they should either increase frequency or add more coaches to solve the issue. Crowding also results in slow entry and exit to Metro stations.”