RRB Practice 12

Metro rail systems have transformed urban mobility in India's largest cities over the past three decades, providing rapid, reliable, and high-capacity mass transit that reduces dependence on private vehicles and eases congestion on crowded city roads. The Kolkata Metro, which commenced operations in 1984 between Dumdum and Bhowanipore, holds the distinction of being India's first metro railway system and was the first rapid transit system in South Asia. However, it was the Delhi Metro that demonstrated the transformative potential of metro rail for Indian cities, with its first line opened in 2002 connecting Shahdara to Tis Hazari. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, established as a joint venture between the Government of India and the Government of Delhi, has since expanded the network to over 390 kilometres of route length covering all major corridors of the national capital region, making it one of the largest metro networks in Asia. The Delhi Metro introduced several innovations to Indian urban transit, including standard gauge track, modern signalling using communication-based train control, platform screen doors on underground stations, air-conditioned coaches, and automatic fare collection through smart card tokens. The success of the Delhi Metro inspired other Indian cities to invest in similar systems, and metro networks are now operational or under various stages of construction in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kochi, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Nagpur, Pune, and several other cities. Mumbai's metro network, built in phases, faces the challenge of augmenting mobility in one of the world's densest cities with a complex underground geology and limited space for surface or elevated alignments. The Bengaluru Metro, operated by the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited under the brand Namma Metro, has expanded rapidly to ease the severe traffic congestion of the information technology capital of India. Kochi Metro has been recognised for its social inclusivity initiatives, including the active employment of transgender persons as staff members. The Nagpur Metro has pioneered the use of solar energy to power metro stations, with solar panels installed on station rooftops generating a portion of the electricity requirement. Indian metro systems are broadly constructed under two models — the traditional public sector model with central and state government funding, and the hybrid annuity or public-private partnership model that involves private investment in civil infrastructure construction. The National Metro Rail Policy of 2017 laid down guidelines for the adoption of standard specifications, common technologies, and integrated ticketing to allow seamless interchange between different metro systems and other modes of public transport. Light metro and metro-lite concepts have been developed for smaller cities and lower-density corridors where the full metro standard would not be cost-effective, allowing more cities to benefit from modern rail-based urban transit at lower capital outlay. The integration of metro stations with bus rapid transit, suburban rail, and para-transit modes at interchange nodes is recognised as essential for maximising the impact of metro investment on overall urban mobility and for ensuring that last-mile connectivity is addressed effectively.