NATION'S PRIDE SOON TO BECOME 3RD LARGEST METRO SYSTEM OF THE WORLD

DELHI METRO

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The concept of a mass rapid transit for New Delhi first emerged from a traffic and travel characteristics study which was carried out in the city in 1969. Over the next several years, many official committees by a variety of Government departments were commissioned to examine issues related to technology, route alignment, and Governmental jurisdiction. In 1984, the Urban Arts Commission came up with a proposal for developing a multi-modal transport system, which would consist of constructing three underground mass rapid transit corridors as well augmenting the city’s existing suburban railway and road transport networks.

While extensive technical studies and the raising of finance for the project were in progress, the city expanded significantly resulting in a two-fold rise in population and a five-fold rise in the number of vehicles between 1981 and 1998. Consequently, traffic congestion and pollution soared, as an increasing number of commuters took to private vehicles with the existing bus system unable to bear the load. An attempt at privatizing the bus transport system in 1992 merely compounded the problem with inexperienced operators plying poorly maintained, noisy and polluting buses on lengthy routes, resulting in long waiting times, unreliable service, extreme overcrowding, unqualified drivers, speeding and reckless driving which even led to road accidents. To rectify the situation, the Government of India under Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda and the Government of Delhi jointly set up a company called the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on 3 May 1995, with Elattuvalapil Sreedharan as the managing director. Sreedharan handed over the charge as managing director of DMRC to Mangu Singh on 31 December 2011.