Jagmohan on Metro benefits

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, MAY 3.

Asserting that Metro rail would prove to be a great boon to the people of Delhi, the Union Urban Development Minister, Mr. Jagmohan, said today these benefits might be short-lived if the city continued to remain in the grip of unauthorised builders and encroachers.

Speaking at the Foundation Day celebrations of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation here, Mr. Jagmohan said ``Cities of the developed world have been able to solve their problems of traffic and transportation not through provision of sophisticated facilities alone. It is their sense of discipline, civic pride and respect for law that has contributed most to the solution of problems''.

According to the Minister, the Capital, by and large, appeared to be a mere conglomeration of people who show little concern for its fate or future. ``There is no organised will or commitment on the part of the community to take on the predatory forces and vanquish them,'' he said.

Classifying the capital's residents into three categories, he said the first category comprised ravagers and racketeers who brutalised the landscape to secure illegal gains. The rapidly vanishing tribe of city lovers and well-wishers fell in the second category. The third category forms the majority which remains indifferent.

The effective way of reducing traffic and transport problems is to go in for a comprehensive planning which minimise the need for travel and ensures that a new relationship between the place of work and place of residence is worked out keeping in view the new technologies in telecommunications and computer sciences, Mr. Jagmohan said.

Appreciating the role of Metro Rail in this regard which will help in reducing the traffic congestion in Delhi, he said when ready its first phase would have a carrying capacity of 60,000 passengers per hour. The first phase of 52 km with an underground corridor of 11 km and two corridors would be completed by 2005.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Managing Director, Mr. E. Sreedharan, said that despite some constraints, the first phase would become operational before its scheduled deadline.

Earlier, Mr. Jagmohan gave away awards to the employees of the Metro Rail for their commendable performance during the past year.

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