Metro projects in PPP model never succeeded: Sreedharan

Hyderabad: India's metro man E Sreedharan on Friday said the public-private partnership (PPP) model in implementing metro projects has not been a success anywhere across the world.

Two metro projects are coming up under PPP model at Hyderabad and Mumbai.

Sreedharan, principal advisor, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, said Hyderabad has the good fortune of having L&T as a partner, which should immensely benefit it.

Sreedharan cautioned that the cost of the delay in implementing the metro project would be enormous.

He, however, cautioned that the cost of the delay in implementing the metro project would be enormous. Each day lost will cost an additional Rs 2 crore, he said.

Sreedharan was delivering a lecture 'Delhi metro rail: A success story' at function in Hyderabad.

He also received V Krishnamurthy Award for Excellence instituted by Centre for Organization Development (COD), from Andhra Pradesh Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan.

Sreedharan had told a conference at Kochi on Thursday that transportation projects with private participation are often plagued by malpractices. He said private firms often show an inflated project cost, to gain a bigger share of the government's viability-gap funding and to borrow more.

On Delhi Metro, he said by the time its fourth phase is completed, it will be the seventh largest metro in the world. Today on an average 22 lakh people travel by Delhi Metro, which operates 3,000 trains a day at a frequency of every 2 to 3 minutes at peak time.

The two phases of Delhi Metro project were completed well before the deadline and within the budget, Sreedharan said.

He pointed out that Delhi Metro has also been a financial success with it making an operational profit of Rs.2 crore every day. This profit has helped in contributing towards expansion of the metro by way of taking on 5 per cent of the cost in phase two and 8 per cent in phase three, besides repaying 60 per cent of the debt from Japan.

This despite Delhi Metro's ticket rate being the lowest in the world, except for Kolkata Metro. According to studies, Delhi Metro could ensure one lakh vehicles being off the road resulting in a saving of one lakh tonnes of diesel, and pollution prevention to an extent of 27 tonnes a day.

Sreedhan noted that each commuter of Delhi metro saves 56 minutes a day in travelling, thereby saving 20 lakh man hours and 2.5 lakh man days for the country.

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