In Nagpur, Metro coaches are let out to host birthday parties: little more than joyrides

Chetana Borkar, a freelance journalist who was born and brought up in Delhi, says, “I am not a user of Nagpur metro. Metro was successful in Delhi because feeder buses and battery rickshaws bridge the commute till stations, which is not the case here. Unless that happens, the entire project is a waste of time. I think improving existing public transport should have been the first priority.”

Ghapesh Dhawale, a student activist from Nagpur university is also quick to call Nagpur metro a “waste of time and money”.

“When this project was announced, it was said local youths would be preferred in recruitment but that is clearly not the case with Nagpur metro. There have been many protests on this issue but almost all the jobs in Nagpur metro appear to be going to people from outside the state. We don't even get to know when the recruitment opens. Recruitment for Nagpur metro is really fishy and should be probed.”

It doesn't take one more than half an hour to travel from one end of the city to another. Metro was not really needed for at least for next 10-15 years in Nagpur. The humongous money spent on this project could have been better utilized in improving already existing essential services. If it really had been successful, people would not have been celebrating birthdays in metro coaches, he said.

“Metro would have been needed had the city had a population of over 90 lakhs and travelling distances were 30 to 40 kms like in Delhi. Why would I go to a station, buy a ticket and spend half an hour when I can commute on my twowheeler in half the time,” asks Advocate Akash Moon, a senior lawyer of Nagpur High Court.

The city’s radius is not more than 10 to 15 kilometers, he points out before adding, “this thing has become an unnecessary burden on Nagpurians. Less than five percent of Nagpur residents are using it.

Snehal Waghmare, an employee of Nagpur district court and regular user of Nagpur metro, says, “It's being used by mostly students and it's never crowded since stations are close to each other. Considering the trouble we had to go through when it was being constructed, the metro hasn't really changed anything. The only good thing is the cheaper fare.”

(This article was first published in National Herald on Sunday)