Anuj Dayal, Chief Public Relations Officer, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd, spoke to Dhirendra Pratap Singh on issues related to Delhi Metro
Tell us about your plans for expansion in the capital? When will the Metro reach places like Greater Noida?
Under the next phase of Metro expansion in the National Capital Region, DMRC is constructing another 140 kilometres of Metro lines spread across four different corridors. Metro corridors are being constructed to connect many areas of the city along Ring Road, Outer Ring Road and Old Delhi. Metro will also reach the satellite city of Faridabad in Haryana for the first time. Connectivity between South Delhi and Noida has also been approved. There are a few more proposals of expanding the Metro network inside Noida which also includes connectivity to Greater Noida. However, the issue of expansion of Metro within Noida is the prerogative of the Uttar Pradesh government.
The Delhi Metro has claimed carbon credits worth crores of rupees. Tell us about your views on environment friendly methods of mass transportation?
Any modern day mass transport system must be fuel efficient. The Delhi Metro assigns great importance to conservation of environment. Ten trees are planted for each tree that has to be cut down for construction work. Delhi Metro is the only railway project in the world to earn carbon credits for its projects. All upcoming projects for mass transportation have to ensure that they use non-polluting fuel for operation and take care of other related aspects such as compensatory forestation.
Tell us about the technological solutions that you are using to ensure smooth operations of the Delhi Metro..
Delhi Metro is determined to make use of latest technologies for bringing efficiency to its operations. In the upcoming phase, we are planning to use signalling technology called the ‘Communication Based Train Control (CBTC),’
which will further bring down the frequency of trains to about 90 seconds. This will help us in running more trains and catering to an even larger number of people.
During peak hours, Metro trains get really crowded.
In order to deal with the increase in the number of commuters, Delhi Metro has already converted 100 of its four-coach trains into sixcoach ones. This has tremendously boosted its carrying capacity. Orders for 212 additional coaches have been placed to convert some of the six-coach trains into eight-coach trains. By the year 2015, all the trains operational on Lines 2 (Jahangirpuri – HUDA City Centre) and 3/4 (Dwarka – NOIDA City Centre/Vaishali) will be of six or eight coaches. With the objective of decongesting Rajiv Chowk, the Mandi House Metro station is being converted into an interchange station with direct connectivity between Line 6 (Kashmere Gate – Faridabad) and Line 3 (Dwarka – NOIDA).
The smart card system that Delhi Metro has introduced has become very popular with the citizens of the city. Is the Delhi Metro planning to have a system where commuters can use their debit or credit cards to pay for their commute?
Delhi Metro has long term plans to introduce a mechanism through which it would be possible to recharge smart cards online as well as from ATMs. Currently, DMRC is working on the finalisation of the technology which will be
used for this facility.