Only metro lines can unchock the megapolis: Fadnavis

Creation of efficient public transport systems like metros, and not flyovers and highways used by private vehicles, is the solution for better mobility in large cities, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said today.
"You can create as many roads, flyovers or elevated roads, but car companies are capable enough to congest them," Fadnavis said at an IMC Ladies Wing event here.
At present, the only efficient transport system in the city is the heavily burdened suburban rail network, which ferries 70 lakh people a day, he rued.
Fadnavis said the only effective alternative accepted across the world is the metro and said we should have had begun erecting it a decade ago.

At present, work on 120 km of metro lines is on in the Mumbai metropolitan area of the planned 174 km, he said, adding his government would want it to be a 200 km network.
The metro lines, along with elevated rail heads, will take the mass transport capacity to 10.5 million from the present 7 million.

Requesting people to bear with the inconveniences due to the metro work, Fadnavis also assured that traffic snarls being experienced in different pockets due to the construction will come down in the next three-four months once the pillar installation is complete.
Underlining the environmental importance of the project, Fadnavis said it requires 2 crore fully grown trees to reduce the carbon footprint what the metro will deliver.

Fadnavis said the government is also working to come up with an integrated transport application which will guide users across all modes of public transport -- rail, metro, monorail and civic buses-- to reach their destination. It will also have a facility of ticketing, he added.
Fadnavis said the distress in agriculture, where up to 50 per cent of the state's population is engaged in to deliver 10 per cent of GSDP, is one of his biggest challenges.
He also flagged malnutrition as a major challenge and enlisted a slew of information and communication technology- led efforts to curb it.