I pulled out some India-specific data from Alon Levy and Co's Transit Costs project which has an excellent international comparison of the costs of metro railway projects.
This table summarises the basic details of all the metro railway lines in 11 Indian cities.
The graphic captures the average cost and the percentage share of tunnels in these cities.
Here is the international comparison of metro-railway projects from across the world.
Clearly, the Indian metro project costs are on the higher side compared to their global peers. In fact, aside of the US and Chinese projects, and those inside the largest European metropolises, the Indian projects are among the most expensive.
This triggers a need for introspection. Given that the high metro rail projects are caused by over-engineering and over-construction involving the likes of tunnels, elevations, underground stations etc, it may be appropriate for government of India to undertake a comprehensive study of the experience of metro railway constructions in India and identify some takeaways with the objective of reducing time over-runs and limiting costs. This post examines some of the issues on cost reduction.
1 comment:
A bunch of steps have been elaborated in Levy's study. I find it surprising that cost reduction is not an important aspect at the time of planning.
In most cases, these projects want to project grandeur rather than utility
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