The acquisition of land in cities, soil conditions and cost overruns are some of the challenges metro rail projects face (‘ >Sunday Anchor ’ page, March 29). Added to this are the inadequacies of the existing financial model and a lack of political power. The fact that people expect subsidised fares that are comparable to State-run transport corporations and railway season ticket fares are what will work against the success of the metro project. Another flaw is that the planners carry out a ‘cut and paste’ job of foreign designs in the name of bringing in ‘world class technology’. All this adds to escalating project costs. Project costs must be brought down by 20-25 per cent using indigenisation. Otherwise, achieving profitability is a difficult task. There also has to be coordination between metro, rail and bus transport authorities. Currently, all of them work at cross purposes and only want to increase their respective revenue streams. The only positive idea is a congestion tax for personal car users, to increase footfalls in the metro; it will reduce oil imports.
S. Balasubramanian,
Chennai
