There is overwhelming evidence to show that
capital-intensive metro rail systems serve only a small proportion of
the total trips in cities in developing countries such as India.
Public-private partnerships have not been very successful, and the Delhi
Metro, which is considered to be the most successful project despite
falling far short of its projected number of users, enjoys numerous tax
benefits not
offered to the bus system, which carries at least five
times more trips. Metro projects around the country are planned and
implemented in isolation without any concern for feeder trips and other
modes of transport. In short, the current regime seems to be biased
towards the magnitude of capital required for construction of a metro
system, rather than the magnitude of its benefits.
