New Delhi: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said he felt ‘sad’ that the Metro train has become unaffordable for the common man following the fare hikes.
“As CM of Delhi, I feel very sad that such an important means of transport has become out of reach of common man. All those who have given up metro are now contributing to Delhi’s pollution by using road-based transport,” he said in a tweet.
The Delhi Metro, according to a report by the Centre for Science and Environment, is the second-most unaffordable in the world among the met-ro systems after Hanoi in Vietnam.
The Metro lost over 40 per cent of its ridership following two fare hikes in 2017. The Delhi Metro’s ridership declined sharp-ly, falling by 4.2 lakh since the hike.
The metro currently has a daily ridership of about 26 lakh, while a 2016 study had projected that the train services would be used by about 40 lakh people in 2018.
The CSE report added that the decline in the number of people opting to travel via Delhi Metro also has severe implications for the environment.
Delhi already experiences severe air pollution and extreme traffic congestion, and that’s only set to become worse if people opt out of the metro service in favour of personal vehicles.
Greenhouse gas emissions could spiral, leading to significant health-damaging implications for people.
However, the Centre and the DMRC have rubbish-ed the report as “misleading and falsification of facts”, saying the study compares “very selected metros”.
Aam Aadmi Party spok-esperson Pankaj Gupta said Delhi’s ranking is “shameful”.
