NEW DELHI: A study by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) says that the modern transport system is becoming increasingly unaffordable for urban commuters. It states that Delhi Metro is the second most unaffordable system in terms of income spent.
It followed the generally accepted method that 10-15 per cent of household income can be spent on transport as the upper limit for a system to be accepted as affordable.
The calculations of analysis show that an unskilled daily wage labourer of Delhi has to spend 22 per cent of his/ her income on travel through Delhi Metro and 14 per cent on use of AC bus. On considering the middle-income group approximately comprising of 30 per cent commuters spends 9 per cent and 14 per cent on using AC bus or the Metro respectively.
The assessment by CSE germinated from the local concern over the hike in Delhi Metro Fare. CSE conducted a diagnostic analysis to find what is needed to keep the public transport and overall journey affordable for commuters while modernizing the system. It mentioned that after fare hike Delhi Metro saw a drop in number of commuters by approximately 4.2 lakh by 2018.CSE also claimed that Delhi Metro received nearly 32 per cent less passengers than the number it had targeted to be served this year.
Delhi Metro Rail Corporation(DMRC) said the CSE study is misleading and based on wrong information.
Mangu Singh, DMRC managing director said, “The report has misleading conclusion. It is based on incomplete, incorrect and irrelevant information. All relevant information isn’t into account. The only authentic organisation for benchmarking and comparing major Metros of the world is CoMET/NOVA. Authors made no attempt to verify the information from there”. He added that “It is seen from the report that ridership of the DMRC is 27lakh against the projected ridership of 39lakh. The 39.5 lakh ridership is projected after completion of phase-III, which is yet to be made fully operational and stabilized.”