India needs integrated transport plan

Country's transportation system is planned by different authorities in isolation, resulting in chaos

The Prime Minister's New Year gift to commuters between Delhi and Meerut may seem positive as National Highway 58, the only existing link between the two places, is heavily congested. However, a cursory look at the numbers may take the shine off the government's claim that it is a "unique" gift to the youth of this country because it would lead to employment and prosperity to nearby areas. There were surely other ways to achieve these objectives. Here's why: The 74-km long Delhi-Dasna-Meerut 14-lane expressway and six-laning of the connector - the 22-km long Dasna-Hapur section of National Highway 24 - will cost Rs 7,566 crore, which comes to about Rs 79 crore a km. Now, consider the cost of laying a new railway track between Delhi and Meerut. While construction of one km of "high-speed" railway track that allows an operational speed of 200 km an hour costs Rs 100-140 crore, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu told Parliament last March that the cost of laying one km of high-speed track was 10-14 times higher than the construction of a "normal" railway track. Assuming that a New Delhi-Meerut railway link would have trains running at 100 km an hour, the cost should not be much more than Rs 10 crore a km.

The average railway travel on this sector would take roughly 45 minutes in comfortable conditions, and it would also be more friendly to the environment. Also, if an expressway can make Meerut the suburb of Delhi as is being widely claimed, a faster railway link would have served the same purpose. For the government, the cost would be roughly eight times less. It is thus difficult to understand the reasons for this "grand" expressway plan unless the focus is entirely on faster movement of commercial vehicles. More than the cost issue, the government's past record in executing road projects on this sector is also uninspiring. In 2010, the road transport ministry had even invited and received bids to widen the Delhi-Dasna stretch to six lanes. But the plan was scrapped in 2011.

The same has been the fate of several rail-link projects between Delhi and Meerut. For example, a green signal was given to an ultra-modern high-speed train service connecting the two cities way back in 2010. Five years later, all that has been heard is that the relevant authorities are yet to give their no-objection certificates, as a result of which another high-level committee has been constituted to find an alternative route for the train. That's not all - in 2014, the Delhi government had given the go-ahead to a project connecting Delhi with Meerut, Alwar and Panipat through high-speed trains. Nothing has been heard about it since.

Such confusion brings into sharp focus how India's transportation system is planned by different authorities in isolation. What is required is an integrated plan that ensures connection of various transport systems as part of an integrated model. The division of responsibilities of overseeing different transport modes between ministries at the national level not only inhibits efficiently coordinated development, it stands in stark contrast to international practice. What is required is a unified ministry of transport with a clear mandate to deliver a multi-modal transport system.