Going Around In Circles

Before ASIAD, or Asian Games 1982, New Delhi had a population of 2 million. No one gave much thought to thefact that burgeoning trade and commerce brings in its wake job seekers from Patna to Jammu, maidservants fromMurshidabad, labourers from Orissa. Suddenly, post-ASIAD Delhi became a major financial and commercial hub,which saw its population exploding to 10-15 million people.

The wisdom of making the capital city of such a large country its financial hub was questionable (Brasilia,Washington DC are almost 100% government cities), but for the time being let us leave it at that. With thedemise of Calcutta, Delhi is the single point destination for the entire 10th class pass category and upwardsin northern India. As the city and the commuters grew in an unorganised manner, the powers that be went onadding buses and routes -- in addition to the much maligned DTC, Blue Line, Red Line etc. were brought in. Bus Drivers holding valid licenses were the exception rather than the norm. In its wake followed new horrorstories like children getting run over .

The concerned cerebral citizens of this city suddenly realised that the air had become grey. How? Thoseblasted buses! When they were not running over people, they were throwing filth in the very air that webreathed, they discovered. Something had to be done.

As an answer, the great worthies from the Center for Environment Studies, TERI, judiciary and Animal LoversForum discovered the Euro series (now Bharat series). Great Discoveries bring in their wake even greaterdiscoveries. From Euro/Bharat I we went to Euro/Bharat II to III. We had left Newton, Einstein, Bill Gates andAmerigo Vespucci far far behind.

The other day on STAR TV, one well spoken lady even suggested, with great conviction and vigour, conversionto Euro/ Bharat V costing the taxpayer a mere Rs.18000 crores. All that needs to be done, she offered, is to scrap the present refineries and get new ones, which will give you very clean fuel, and the car makerscan make a matching investment for vehicles that can digest it. She almost had the Petroleum Minister choking(tears or laughter, Rajdeep Sardesai can confirm).

Then came the greatest discovery of all. The cerebral citizens of Delhi discovered CNG. The panacea to ourbreathing problems was heralded with much fanfare. The fuel to run our buses, taxis and autos, had been found.The fuel with the healthy exhaust had arrived. Visions of people with their noses shoved into the exhaust pipeof a DTC bus, breathing pure air began to capture popular imagination. "This fuel has not been successfullyproved in any major city in the world," the skeptics warned. "No problem," countered the experts,"Delhi will now show the world what CNG is all about!"

Another discovery is in the pipeline. The great Delhi Metro Rail is in the offing. Being constructed at thecost of Rs. 300 crores/ km. The whole gig will cover a 100 odd kilometers when completed in 15 years time.

These were heady times. For a country bumpkin a la George of the Jungle, who had just come in from AndamanIslands (we didn’t even have Internet there), this was exciting. We were really going to have anInternational class city in India. I was thrilled with the very idea.

But, then two things happened that left me ruminating..

The first was when I saw a seventyish Sikh auto driver (or at least one who looked seventyish),queued up for CNG.

Nothing extraordinary in that. Only that the temperature outside was 44°C. The man must have been in queuesince morning, and looked another couple of hours away from getting his tank filled. There was this palpableexpression of pain on his face. And yet, with a ramrod straight back, the old man was pushing his auto with agreat sense of purpose, as if that was the most important thing in the world.

His total demeanour seemed to mock the great cerebral think tanks/decision makers of the city, the ones whodiscovered the Euro/ Bharat series, CNG and similar discoveries still to come. Did any one ask the wise ladyfrom Environment studies, the spirited campaigner for Euro V, the great defender of CNG, what it's like toqueue up for eight to sixteen hours, once every thirty six hours for the greatest fuel on earth?

The second? I bought the Eicher road map of Delhi.

The first thing that I noticed in the early pages is that Delhi has a circular railway line. It is not justa circle, rather a circle with well spaced out spokes (five and a half) going outwards. How come no one talksabout this solution for Delhi’s transport problem?

I made a few enquiries. "Why don’t you take the Ring Rail to come to Nehru Place?" I asked somefriends from Rohini. No one had even considered this as an option. The reason is not difficult to find. Notenough trains. "You have about 12 local trains running on Ring Rail in the day," the NorthernRailways announced proudly a few days back. Bombay has as many running on one track in an hour and it has foursuch tracks in Western Line, four such in Central Line and two in Harbour Line. That makes it 120 locals in anhour. 

Now take a look at the railway stations in the city. Great care seems to have been taken to make them asinaccessible as possible. Safdarjung station  is hidden away somewhere in Chanakyapuri. Chanakyapuri station is somewhere near Dhaula Kuan.

The commercial complexes are another story. Nehru Place, Aurobindo Market, Bhikaji Cama Place -- to nameonly a few at random -- are as inaccessible from the Ring Rail as one can be. Even today, there is no dearthof empty spaces near the Railway stations. Nothing stops the railway stations from becoming commercialcomplexes. In Tokyo, for example, one comes out of the train, and straight away takes an elevator to one’soffice. New Bombay is also coming up with this concept. Why can’t Delhi?

Picture this: there is a suburban train stop at all roads crossing the ring rail and its feeders; there isa local train available at all stations every five minutes; all buses in Delhi start from colonies andterminate at the nearest rail station. Changing over from Faridabad line to Ring Rail will then be afive-minute wait at best. Incidentally, the Faridabad line runs very close to Nehru Place. The only problem isto get to Nehru Place from the nearest station.

The papers often bring out articles about a few individual cases who have taken the Ring Rail on a lark andhave been pleasantly surprised at the speed and comfort with which they arrived at their destination. That too,at a very nominal cost. But talk about it and chances are you would be told that Delhiwallahs are hardcore cardrivers and will drive to office in their Santros, come what may..

The fact is that there is a huge population in the income group of Rs 1.5 lakhs/month who drive to work notbecause they love it, but because they can’t digest the idea of bus travel anymore. It's infra dig. But thefew adventurous individuals who have tried it out during the recent CNG crisis/drama can attest to therelative speed, affordability and comfort of suburban trains.

Why then do we even refuse to give the run of the mill suburban train concept the attention it deserves?The basic infrastructure is in place. The tracks are there, the electrification is there, stations exist. Yes,investment is required in signaling systems, a few more stations at major crossings, bus terminals near eachstation, some additional manpower to handle more trains and a hundred odd rakes. Pizza stands, tea/ coffeedispensers can come up to spruce up the stations. The total cost will be well under the per km constructioncost of the metro.

With office complexes coming up as part of the suburban station, road traffic will cover much shorterdistances. Most bus routes can head to the nearest station. Suburban trains being electricity-driven, are themost energy efficient mass transporters. They also do not emit any particulate emissions. What's more, theneed to instantly spend Rs 18,000 crores to update (shorthand for scrap and buy new) our refineries will beobviated too. Euro/Bharat V norms can come with sufficient notice (till my ancient Euro I Zen becomes scrapworthy).

Seventyish auto drivers should not be queuing up for eight hours at 44°C for a tank of CNG and thenagain after 36 hours. Even Mel Gibson took 48 hours.