CSE report misleading, not based on facts: DMRC

The Delhi Metro on Wednesday termed as "misleading" a report by a green body which claimed DMRC is the second most unaffordable metro system in the world in terms of percentage of income spent for using it.

The DMRC rubbished the report of Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) which also claimed the Delhi Metro has received nearly 32 per cent less than the number of daily passengers it had hoped to serve this year, saying its earlier projection included Phase-3 which has not become operational as yet.

However, Anumita Roy Chowdhury, the Executive Director of the research and advocacy group, clarified that they were talking about the overall picture of the transport system in the report.

"Our public transport system is not functioning optimally and there needs to be a strategy to increase the ridership so that people's dependence on their personal vehicle reduces," she said, adding that they took other cities into consideration too.

The CSE in a report on Tuesday said, it has found that after the fare hike last year, Delhi metro has become the second-most unaffordable service in the world among the cities that charge less than half a US dollar for a trip.

O"f nine metropolitan cities across the world where the cost for a 10-km trip is less than half-a-US dollar, the Delhi Metro remains the second-most unaffordable system in terms of percentage of income spent for using it," the CSE study said.

As per the calculation, the study says that commuters in Delhi spend about 14 per cent of their income on Metro rides that is lower only to 25 per cent spent by commuters in Hanoi.

Delhi Metro has called the study "misleading and not based on facts and data".

"This study is conveniently comparing DMRC with very selected metros across the world. Why don't you compare with big metros," said DMRC MD Mangu Singh.

The other cities considered in the report were - Buenos Aires, Cairo, Hanoi, Jakarta, Kiev, Manila, Mexico City, Mumbai and New Delhi