Outlook | Length Of Operational Metro Rail Projects Touch 824 Km: Hardeep Singh Puri

Dec 12,2022

The length of operational metro rail projects has reached 824 kilometres and work on another 1,039 kilometers is under work, Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said in Rajya Sabha on Monday.

     "The urban transport, let's say metro rail, from zero in 2002 has come up to 824 kilometres, which is operational. Another 1,039 kilometres are under work. So, it is rapidly expanding," he said while replying to a supplementary during the Question Hour.
     

The government is investing to boost public transport, including metro rail.
     
"...we are on the path of those who are advocating bringing in of more public transport and that is why we have gone from 0 to 824 kilometers, and another 1,039 kms coming up. That, in itself, is a testimony to the fact that public transport is being encouraged," Puri said.
     
"We are already one of the largest metro operators...I am sure, the time will come we would be the second largest metro operator in the world," the minister said.
     
Puri said the central government encourage public transport and urban transport under different schemes.
     
"We encourage the purchase of buses; we encourage the metro system. The metro system, by definition, is a capital-intensive system," he added.
     
Responding to a query on making metro transport affordable to the poor people of all the cities, Puri said: "Now, as regards the affordability, I agree, but metro systems have to be self-sustaining. There are some state governments which would want to make the metro system free, which means the metro will become like their state transport undertaking buses, in other words,collapse. So, a judicious balance has to be found".
     
Puri also highlighted that gender sensitivity is at the heart of all of its urban policies.
     
"Whether it is urban transport or any other form of transportation, the gender sensitivity lies in the fact that the Urban Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana envisages that the title of the home has to be in the name of the lady of the house, or, co-jointly," the minister said.
     
Puri said the government is constantly on the lookout for moving from the use of petrol and diesel to electric vehicles, to moving towards green hydrogen, etc.
     
"There are a large number of steps that we have taken. For instance, I can tell you; on bio-fuels, we have gone from 1.4 per cent - a biofuel mixing in 2014 -- to 10 per cent, which we did five months earlier. We had a target of 20 per cent bio-fuel mixing. From 2030, we have brought it forward to 2024-25," he said.
     
Puri informed that the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) have set up 22,000 electric vehicle charging stations.
     
"All the new roll-out of vehicles which are coming in the next year, most of them will be electric vehicles. Now, what I am doing is only a part of what is being done by the Government of India. My colleagues who deal with the Ministry of NHAI and Heavy Industries, they are all dealing with this. So, there is a large bouquet of incentives which are there for electric vehicles," the minister said.
     
In a written reply, Puri said urban transport is an integral part of urban development, which is a state subject.
     
As such, planning, management, execution & development of Urban Transport systems, including initiatives for integrated land use and transport plans are done by the respective state governments/ Union Territories (UTs)/ Urban Local Bodies (ULBs).
     
The Centre issues policy guidelines to state governments on such issues related to urban transport from time to time, he added.