Delhi Metro: Down future lane!

Himani Chandel

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 24

Crowd control and reducing the number of incidents are the major challenges before Delhi Metro, says Sharad Sharma, Director Operations, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), as it completes 12 years of its commissioning in the national Capital today.
"Delhi Metro has become a giant rail system like the ones running in Russia, Tokoyo, Beijing, Shanghai, London and New York. Crowd control is becoming a big challenge. The passengers are bound to increase with growth. It will be very difficult to control. So, we have to see how we will manage in the given resources and infrastructure," said Sharma.  
Metro's ridership that started from 80,000 in 2002, touched 25 lakh in 2014. "In 2010, when we commissioned Phase II, the ridership was ten lakh and today it is 25 lakh, 2.5 times growth in just four years," Sharma said.
For the Metro incidents that were reported recently, due to one or the other technical glitch, Sharma said snag-free system does not exist. "There cannot be a system which will not have any snag or disruption but we will have to reduce the number of incidents and its consequences," he said.
Metro has set two main points in its agenda: one is to become number one transport system in the country, apart from being ranked as number three in Asia with regard to punctuality, quality, safety and response to the customer and the other is to make it a self-sustainable organisation, said the Director.
"There is demand and the issue of sustainability while the expenditure is increasing every year. The challenge is how to work out their solutions. The energy bills alone, in the last five years, have increased from Rs 50 crore to Rs 400 crore, eight times growth," Sharma explained.
A fleet of 18,000 employees working day and night to make Metro a success every day is another area of consideration for the organisation.
"We have a great number of employees working for us round-the-clock. This includes a staff of around 6,000 employees plus 6,000 hired on contract for cleaning, parking etc and 6,000 staff employed for the overall security. We ensure the culture of Delhi Metro in every employee through training," Sharma said.