India now has Metro Train services operational in 19 cities with 743 km of rail line

A recent report that was tabled in Lok Sabha confirms that around 743 km long metro rail line is operational in the country in a total of 19 cities. 

The 17th Lok Sabha report also confirmed that over 1,000 km of metro rail line is under construction in 27 cities, which also includes the 82 km-long Delhi-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) corridor. 

The RRTS project includes a rail length of 291 km stretching between Delhi-Panipat and Delhi-Alwar.

Talking of the first-ever metro rail stretch, it was commissioned in 1984 in Kolkata.

The 3.4 km long route comprised five stations between Esplanade and Bhowanipur stations.

"Metro project proposals of several cities, such as Delhi Phase-IV (balance three corridors), Kochi Phase-II, Chennai Metro Phase II, Bangalore Metro Phase-2A and 2B, Nashik, Nagpur Metro Phase-II, Thane, Pune Metro Extension, Jammu, Srinagar, Kochi Phase IA, Noida Metro Aqualine extension, etc, are under consideration," it added.

Many more cities like Varanasi, Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode, Guwahati, and Chandigarh are aspiring to have metro rail system, the panel report said.

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On Delhi Metro's ridership, the report said, "Actual Average Daily Ridership (AADR) of Delhi Metro was 26.14, 28.00, 25.86, 25.93 and 50.65 lakh in 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20, respectively, against Average Daily Ridership required for break-even of 16.07, 18.59, 16.26, 17.03 and 38.24 lakh, respectively, in the same years."

Despite a lapse of more than four years, six of the 12 states where metro rail networks are either operational or under construction were yet to constitute Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (UMTA) as a statutory body, according to the report.

These six states are Delhi, Karnataka, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra (in Mumbai only) and Rajasthan, it said.

For Delhi Metro, the report said that "the process of setting up of UMTA has been initiated in September, 2021. The proposal is under consideration of GNCTD (Delhi government) for taking necessary action".