Metro no longer a hassle free mode of transport in India

: Snags in the metro are becoming a day to day event and the latest one in the list was in Kolkata where about 500 passengers had to spend a harrowing 20 minutes in semi-darkness because of a technical snag. The glitch forced the non-AC rake to stop at a tunnel in between two stations in Kolkata on Monday.

Although the authorities claimed that there is proper air circulation in the tunnels, but the passengers complained of suffocation and breathlessness.

It is not for the first time that such technical snags have occurred. In Delhi, the metro snags have become a daily phenomenon and not to forget Mumbai where the metro service was hit by a technical glitch on the very first day of its inauguration which left people stranded at the Jagrati Nagar station for almost half an hour. Even few days back, an over-head equipment (OHE) problem stopped Metro services for nearly an hour on Saturday in Mumbai.

An over-head equipment problem seems to be the major reason of all these snag

In Delhi, metro snags do not surprise people now and the services get disrupted, especially the Blue line metro, leaving people stranded leading to overcrowding of stations and chaos. The Blue Line operates from Dwarka to Noida City Centre/Vaishali terminals. The technical faults lead to chaos at many stations along the route which is one of the busiest one in the capital and links Dwarka in west Delhi with Noida and Vaishali in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh.

An over-head equipment (OHE) problem seems to be the major reason of all these snags in the capital, but no solutions have been suggested for the same yet. Because of these ineffective arrangements commuters have to suffer every now and then.

This snag epidemic is not only faced by the metro as a latest report revealed that an unprecedented crisis of breakdowns is faced by the Delhi Transport Corporation as 600-700 buses fail every day causing a lot of trouble for the commuters. These bus failures which generally happen in the middle of the road lead to traffic congestion for which a concrete solution is needed.

With all the major means of transport posing trouble to the common man, questions are being raised at the transport system in our country. When such technical glitches have become a daily phenomenon, why are these problems not being addressed?

As a remedy for the traffic congestion problem, World Bank president Jim Young Kim has suggested to build 1,000 kilometres of new bus rapid transit (BRT) lanes in the next 20 years. He also said that with this India can save more than 27,000 lives and create over 1,28,000 jobs.

"Well-designed and -enforced bus rapid transit (BRT) is a relatively inexpensive way to get people out of high-emitting vehicles and to reduce traffic congestion and pollution," he said.

According to 'Climate-Smart Development' report, $3-4 billion is needed to develop 1,000 kms of BRT corridors in about 20 cities across India within 6-12 years.

This may help in solving the problems for buses, but there seems to be no solution for the glitches which occur in the metro.

With the Modi Government at helm, people have started anticipating that good days are here. The new Government will soon present its budget and this segment (commuters) hope that something will be done to relieve them too from this day to day hassle.

Oneindia News