Metro to recover Phase-I cost 2 yrs before schedule: Study - News

The entire cost would be achieved by December 2011 following the increasing ridership of the Metro, which has gone upto 8,50,170 per day this year, DMRC Director (Works) Mangu Singh, who presented the study, told reporters here.

According to the study, conducted by the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), if the social and economic benefits are quantified, the value of accrued benefits would be Rs 10,801.64 crore by March 2012 while the construction cost of Phase-I was Rs 10,571 crore.

Mr Singh said these benefits were a result of passenger time saved, fuel cost saved, reduction in capital and operating cost of vehicles.

The CRRI said there had been a progressive reduction in daily vehicle demand as major chunk of the people were shifting to the Metro. This year, the Metro rail would take daily share of 57,953 vehicles for all modes of transport.

The Metro would also avoid a total of 255 accidents, including 51 fatalities, this year as against the 196 accidents, including 21 fatalities, in 2007. The figures of accidents saved would go upto 314, including 63 fatalities by 2011, the study found.

The study also informed that the number of vehicle owners, who had option to commute by Metro, had also mounted. Among all Metro users, 23.27 per cent travellers said they opted this transport following traffic jams while 5.14 per cent said they did so because of parking problems, 16.51 per cent because of less commuting time in the Metro, 8.38 per cent for safety while 15.97 commuters said it was a comfortable means of transport.

The CRRI further stated that increasing use of Metro would prevent 131,395.34 tonnes of greenhouse gas emission into the city's environment this year. This is a five-time increase from 27,614.34 tonnes in 2007.

Mr Singh said, ''The present study by CRRI is a sequel of the study done in 2007 in which benefits of the Delhi Metro were quantified. With new data, the quantification was redone. This has given a good opportunity to review the methodology and the procedure adopted before and improve.''

-- (UNI) -- 06DI43.xml

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