Government should set up a Metro Rail Finance Corporation to fund Metros, says E Sreedharan

Finance, competent manpower are the major challenges for Metro Rail Projects

E Sreedharan, who has been known for his role in development of Konkan Railway, Delhi Metro Rail and other rail related developments, suggested that the centre should set up a Metrorail Finance Corporation to arrange funding for the metro rail developments in the country.

He said that there are already 10 cities where metro rail constructions are in progress and another 10 projects the Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) are ready and the sanctions are expected next fiscal year. Besides, DPRs are going on in 10 more cities, all to be developed by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC). The Metros under construction is coming up with a cost of around Rs 2 lakh crore and the upcoming 10 would also cost the same, he said. With more cities are coming up with Metro Rail projects, the biggest challenge would be to arrange funding.

"The government has to find an innovative way of financing these projects, because metro projects by themselves are not profitable," he said. He was speaking to the reporters after delivering the Civil Engineering Endowment Lecture organised by the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, where he stated that Public Private Partnership (PPP) model would not be a viable model for metro rail projects, considering the cost involved and that the ticket charges could not be raised to more than a level for public interest.

"My suggestion to the Government of India would be that there should be something like a financing corporation only for Metro projects, with a seed money of Rs 10,000-20,000 crore and that corporation should have the responsibility to raise money on behalf of the government to fund the Metro projects," he told reporters.

This should be almost the similar role the Indian Railway Finance Corporation is playing for Indian Railways, to reduce the burden on the government, on the Metro Rail projects.

The fundamental thing the government should do is to make the construction of Metros cheap. Reduce the per kilometer cost of the Metro Rails. That is possible only through a few ways. One is to reduce the duties and taxes of the Metros. Second is standardisation of Metros in the country. Now each city is having its own kind of Metro, which is a foolish thing to do. Standardisation itself bring down the cost by 20 per cent. Third is to build up competent contractors in the country. Similarly, enough number of engineers competent to handle metros, like starting Metro Cources in IITs and make it compulsory for cities developing Metros.

"Government initiative in these matters is lacking. I had lot of hopes in the new government, that it would bring many of the changes, but it is not happening," he said.

For Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, to handle various projects at one go, one of the challenges is the funding for the projects. The other main challenge is the availability of competent manpower for all these projects. The Delhi Metro had a major start, starting a new Metro Course itself in IIT Delhi. A similar Metro Course is going to be started in IIT Madras.

"Through that only we can train technocrats to man the various positions in Metro Rail Projects. These has to be made compulsory according to me. All the IITs should have Metro Cources," he said.

There are around seven cities with more than Five million population, 15 cities with more than Three million population and around 40-42 cities with more than One million. The aim of the government is to set up Metro in every city with more than one million population.