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MUMBAI RAILWAY VIKAS CORPORATION LIMITED (MRVC)
MUMBAI URBAN TRANSPORT PROJECT 2A (MUTP 2A)
FINAL REPORT (Volume I: Executive Summary and Main Report)
August, 2015
Institutional Development of the Suburban Rail System:
Support to Indian Railways in the Design and Implementation
of their Suburban Rail Strategy
Institutional Development of the Suburban Rail System: Support to Indian Railways in the
Design and Implementation of their Suburban Rail Strategy
i
Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...................................................................................................................... 1
SECTION 1: BACKGROUND ................................................................................................................ 8 1. Urban India is Experiencing Massive Growth and Trying to Transform ................................................. 9 2. Focus of this Technical Assistance (TA) .............................................................................................. 10 3. Objective and Scope of Services under this TA ................................................................................... 10
SECTION 2: PROBLEM SETTING ........................................................................................................ 11 4. Role of Sub Urban Rail Systems in Urban India ................................................................................... 12
4.1 S u b u r b a n R a i l P a s s e n g e r G r o w t h i n I n d i a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 4.2 S u b u r b a n R a i l O p e r a t i o n s i n M a j o r M e t r o p o l i t a n A r e a s o f I n d i a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 4 4.3 E m e r g i n g U r b a n I n d i a a n d P o t e n t i a l s o f S u b u r b a n R a i l . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 7
5. Indian Urban transport – issues and perspective ................................................................................. 21 5.1 S t u d y o n T r a f f i c a n d T r a n s p o r t a t i o n P o l i c i e s a n d S t r a t e g i e s i n U r b a n A r e a s i n
I n d i a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1 5.2 K e y R e c o m m e n d a t i o n s o f R a k e s h M o h a n C o m m i t t e e R e p o r t . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2 5.3 F i n a n c i a l a n d I n s t i t u t i o n a l S t u d y o f C o m b i n e d M e t r o p o l i t a n R a i l . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 3
6. Institutional Arrangements for Urban Transport in India....................................................................24 7. Mumbai Suburban Rail System- Issues and Concerns ......................................................................... 27 8. MRVC and its Mandate ..................................................................................................................... 27 9. Problem Statement with Respect to Suburban Rail Transport in India ................................................28
9.1 S u b u r b a n R a i l w a y O p e r a t i o n s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 8 9.2 U r b a n T r a n s p o r t - U t i l i s a t i o n o f e x i s t i n g i n f r a s t r u c t u r e P r o b l e m S u b U r b a n R a i l
n e e d i n g U r g e n t A t t e n t i o n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 9 9.3 P r o b l e m D o m a i n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 0 9.4 F o c u s A r e a s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2 9.5 S W O T A n a l y s i s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 3 9.6 K e y A r e a s N e e d i n g A t t e n t i o n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 3
SECTION 3: INSTITUTIONAL OPTIONS .............................................................................................. 35 10. Indian Railway’s view on Suburban Rail with Focus on Operations and Institutional Aspects ............... 36 11. Recent efforts towards restructuring railway board ............................................................................ 38 12. Lessons from Review of International Case Studies ............................................................................ 39
12.1 L e s s o n f r o m S u c c e s s i n S u b u r b a n R a i l . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 9 12.2 L e s s o n f r o m D e l a y e d i m p l e m e n t a t i o n o f S u b u r b a n R a i l . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 0
13. Thematic Approach in evolving Suburban Rail Institutional Options ...................................................44 13.1 C o n s i d e r a t i o n s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 4 13.2 I n s i g h t s t o G o v e r n m e n t o f I n d i a / I R P e r s p e c t i v e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 4 13.3 U M T A - U n i f i e d M e t r o p o l i t a n T r a n s p o r t A u t h o r i t y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 5 13.4 W h e t h e r C o r p o r a t i o n o r A u t h o r i t y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 6 13.5 S p e c i a l P u r p o s e V e h i c l e ( S P V ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 6 13.6 F i n a n c i n g R e l a t e d A s p e c t s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 6
14. Suburban Rail Institutional Strengthening - Options and Evaluation for Suburban Rail Development Organisations (SRDO) ....................................................................................................................... 47 14.1 I n i t i a l O p t i o n s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 7 14.2 E v a l u a t i o n o f O p t i o n s f o r F u r t h e r C o n s i d e r a t i o n a n d D i s c u s s i o n s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 0 14.3 P r i n c i p a l S t a k e h o l d e r s V i e w o n e v o l v i n g S u b u r b a n R a i l I n s t i t u t i o n a l O p t i o n s . . 5 4 14.4 V i e w s E x p r e s s e d i n W o r k s h o p s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 6 14.5 E v o l v e d S h a r e d v i e w o n S u b u r b a n R a i l I n s t i t u t i o n a l S t r e n g t h e n i n g a n d O p t i o n s 5 8
SECTION 4: RECOMMENDATION ...................................................................................................... 59 15. Recommended Suburban Rail Institutional Strategy ........................................................................ 60
15.1 R e g i o n a l / N a t i o n a l l e v e l . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 0 15.2 M u m b a i S p e c i f i c - I n s t i t u t i o n a l A r r a n g e m e n t . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 4 15.3 T i m e B o u n d A c t i o n P l a n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 7
16. Way Forward ..................................................................................................................................... 73 16.1 N a t i o n a l / R e g i o n a l P e r s p e c t i v e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 3 16.2 M u m b a i M e t r o p o l i t a n R e g i o n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 4 16.3 E x p e d i t i n g P r o j e c t s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 5
Institutional Development of the Suburban Rail System: Support to Indian Railways in the
Design and Implementation of their Suburban Rail Strategy
ii
List of Tables
Table 4-1: Suburban Rail Passenger Growth in India ......................................................................................................... 13 Table 4-2: Daily Ridership in Suburban Railway of Different Cities (2013-14) ..................................................................... 13 Table 4-3: Suburban Railway System of different Cities .................................................................................................... 13 Table 4-4: Population Growth-Major Urban Agglomerations of India ............................................................................... 18 Table 4-5: Potential of Suburban Rail Growth in India ...................................................................................................... 19 Table 4-6: Potential for Suburban Rail Expansion/ Creation in Major UAs of India .............................................................20 Table 12-1: Broad Perspective on Suburban/ Commuter Rail System Implementation, Operation and Maintenance – Case Countries/ Cities .............................................................................................................................................................. 41 Table 14-1: Alternative Options, Evaluation Criteria and Initial Assessment ...................................................................... 52 Table 15-1: Implementation Program for Interim Arrangement- Enhanced MRVC Model ................................................. 72
List of Figures
Figure 14-1: Evolution of Resource Mobilisation and Institutional Arrangements .............................................................. 50 Figure 15-1: Regional Transport Authority ........................................................................................................................ 65 Figure 15-2: Regional Transport Authority, Urban Transport Fund and Regional Suburban Rail Corporation .................... 66 Figure 15-3: UTF - Potential Sources of Funding .............................................................................................................. 66 Figure 15-4: Evolution of Institutional Arrangements & Dedicated Urban Transport Fund for Mumbai .............................. 67
List of Annexure
Annexure 3-1 : Detailed Scope of Services Annexure 4-1 : Detailed Insights to Indian Suburban Rail System Annexure 5-1 : Indian National Transport Committees and Policy Documents Annexure 6-1 : Urban Public Transport Scenario in India Annexure 7-1 : Present Organisation Structure of MRVC and Preferred Organization Structure for RVC and Staffing
Needs Annexure 9-1 : Overview of PPP Opportunities in Suburban Rail Sector Annexure 12-1 : Suburban Rail Systems-Some Case Studies Annexure 13-1 : Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) Annexure 14-1 : Evaluation of Options Annexure 14-2 : Presentation – Workshop in Mumbai Annexure 14-3 : Presentation – Workshop in Delhi Annexure 15-1 : Proposed Institutional Structures for SRDC, SRDA and SRO Annexure 15-2 : Draft UMTA Bill, 2014
Institutional Development of the Suburban Rail System: Support to Indian Railways in the
Design and Implementation of their Suburban Rail Strategy
iii
List of Abbreviations
BCL Braithwaite & Co. Ltd.
BR British Railways
BRTS Bus Rapid Transit System
BSCL Burn Standard Company Limited
BVG Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe
BWEL Bharat Wagon and Engineering Co. Ltd.
CAGR Compound Annual Growth Rate
CBD Central Business District
CIDCO City and Industrial Development Corporation Ltd.
CLW Chittaranjan Locomotive Works
CONCOR Container Corporation of India Limited
CMD Chairman and Managing Director
CMDA Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority
CPTM Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos (English: São Paulo Metropolitan Train Company)
CRIS Centre for Railway Information Systems
CSA Combined Statistical Area
CR Central Railway
CST Chhatrapati Shivali Terminus
CTS Comprehensive Transportation Study
DA Development Authority
DFCCIL Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited
DfT Department for Transport
DLR Docklands Light Railway
DLW Diesel Locomotive Works
DMRC Delhi Metro Rail Corporation
DMU Diesel Multiple Unit
DRM Divisional Railway Manager
EJRC Eastern Japan Railway Company
EMU Eclectic Multiple Units
EPIC French: établissement public à caractère industriel et commercial
ER Eastern Railway
EU European Union
FA Ferrocarriles Argentinos (Argentina Railways)
FD Finance Department
FEPASA Ferrovias Paulistas S.A.
GCM Generators of Economic Momentum
GDP Gross Domestic Product
GLA Greater London Authority
GNP Gross National Product
HKTD Hong Kong Transport Department
HOV Heavy Occupancy Vehicles
HCBS High Capacity Bus System
HUD Housing & Urban Development
IDSMT Integrated development of Smaill and Medium Towns
IPT Intermediate Public Transport
IR Indian Railways
IRBT Integrated Rail and Bus Transport
IRCON Indian Railway Construction International Limited
IRCTC Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited
Institutional Development of the Suburban Rail System: Support to Indian Railways in the
Design and Implementation of their Suburban Rail Strategy
iv
IRFC Indian Railway Finance Corporation Limited
JNR Japan National Railways
JNNURM Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission
KRCL Konkan Railway Corporation Limited
LB Local Body
LIRR Long Island Rail Road
LRT Light Rail Transit
MC Municipal Corporation
MCA Military Cantonment Authority
MLIT Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism
MoRTH Ministry of Road Transport and Highways
MRVC Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation
MSA Metropolitan Statistical Area
MSR Mumbai Suburban Rail
MTA Metropolitan Transportation Authority
MTRCL Mass Transit Railway Corporation Limited
MTT Metropolitan Transport Teams
MMRC Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation
MMRDA Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority
MMR Mumbai Metropolitan Region
MMRC Mumbai Metro rail Corporation
MMTS Multi-Modal Transport System
MNCR Metro-North Commuter Railroad
MRTS Mass Rapid Transit System
MTA Metropolitan Transportation Authority, New York
MTA Metropolitan Transit Authority (The Met) of Melbourne
MTP(R) Metropolitan Transport Project (Railways)
MRTS Mass Rapid Transport System
MRVC Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation Ltd.
MTSU Mumbai Transformation Support Unit
MUTP Mumbai Urban Transport Project
NFTA Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority
NCR North Central Railway
NCU National Commission on Urbanisation
NER North Eastern Railway
NIUA National Institute of Urban Affairs
NSE North South East
NR Northern Railway
NTPC National Transport Policy Committee
NUTAI National Urban Transport Authority of India
NUTP National Urban Transport Policy
O&M Operation & Maintenance
PC Planning Commission
PPP Public Private Partnership
PRC Peoples Republic of China
PRASA Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa
PT Public Transport
PTCS Pallavan Transport Consultancy Services
PTE Passenger Transport Executives
PWD Public Works Department
RATP RégieAutonome des Transports Parisiens (English: Autonomous Operator of Parisian Transports)
RCIL Railtel Corporation of India Limited (RCIL)
RDC Rail Development Corporation
Institutional Development of the Suburban Rail System: Support to Indian Railways in the
Design and Implementation of their Suburban Rail Strategy
v
RDA Rail Development Authority
RDFSA Rede Ferroviária Federal Sao Paulo
RER Réseau Express Régional (French), (English: Regional Express Network)
RITES Rail India Techno Economic Services
RLDA Rail Land Development Authority
RMSP Região Metropolitana de São Paulo
RoW Right of Way
RRS Regional Rail System
RRT Rapid Rail Transit
RVNL Rail Vikas Nigam Limited
SAR Special Administrative Region
SCR South Central Railway
SER South Eastern Railway
SL Storstockholms Lokaltrafik (Stockholm’s regional transit system)
SJ Statens Jarnvägar (Swedish State Railways)
SNCF French National Railway Company
SP State Police
SPMR Sao Paulo Metropolitan Region
SPUR Special Priority Urban Regions
SPV Special Purpose Vehicle
SR Southern Railway
SRDC Suburban Rail Development Corporation
SRDA Suburban Rail Development Authority
SRO Suburban Rail Operator
SRSSA Suburban Rail System Service Area
STB Surface Transportation Board
STIF Syndicat des transports d'Île-de-France
STC State Transport Corporation
STM State Department of Metropolitan Transport (Sao Paulo)
TA Technical Assistance
TC Transit Corporation
TC Transport Commissioner
TfL Transport for London
TMBT Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation
TO Transit Operator
TOCs Train Operating Companies
TRTA Teito Rapid Transit Authority
TP Traffic Police
UMTA Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority
UK United Kingdom
URA Urban Renewal Authority
UTF Urban Transport Fund
VBB Verkehrsverbund Berlin-Brandenburg
WR Western Railway
Institutional Development of the Suburban Rail System: Support to Indian Railways in the
Design and Implementation of their Suburban Rail Strategy
1
Executive Summary
Institutional Development of the Suburban Rail System: Support to Indian Railways in the
Design and Implementation of their Suburban Rail Strategy
2
1. Study Objectives
The objective of the study was - "to support initiatives by Indian Railways for the implementation of their
Strategy for Suburban Rail (as set out in Vision 2020) through development of legal and institutional
arrangements within IR for the future ownership, planning, expansion, management, financing and
operation of suburban rail services with a specific case study of Mumbai Suburban Rail System, for such
arrangements and the proposed partnership arrangements between IR and State Authorities".
2. Context & Issues
India’s urban population is expected to grow by over 10 million each year for the next 20 years. Existing rail
corridors are often the only available, unobstructed, potential higher order transit corridors yet to be
exploited. Transportation planners in urban centres, often want to capture any available capacity on these
corridors for urban rail transport. Understandably IR is often reluctant to grant access to their rights of way,
in order to protect their core business activity-carrying inter-city passenger and freight traffic. In many cities
across the world, the need for rail freight trains to enter city centres is diminishing, as freight handling
moves to containers, which requires truck/train intermodal yards, often are best located on unencumbered
large land parcels on the periphery of a city. This can afford the opportunity for railway rationalization and
freeing up rail corridor capacity.
One of the key problem areas of dealing with suburban rail in India is
that the fare tariffs for rail passenger travel has been artificially
depressed to the point that it is negatively impacting the viability of
new rail or road based transit projects particularly in urban centres
like Mumbai. Currently the Mumbai suburban rail system is carrying
8.0 million passenges per day yet is operating at only a 50% recovery
rate on operations, largely due to high inflation over multiple years
and marginal increses in fares.
The delemma facing IR and possible measures that may be undertaken are illustrated by comments made
in the Interim Report, March 2015 of the Mr. Bibek Debroy Committee1.
a) “there are no convincing argument in favour of low user charges across the board. If subsidies are
warranted for those who are poor there are better ways of targeting them, such as direct benefit
transfers.”(page 23);
b) “If the government, as opposed to the market, wants Railway operators (public or private) to provide certain
services that fall short of market terms (such as an unviable route or unviable fare for poor passengers) both
IR and private operators will be obliged to provide them as long as the government (Union or State)
commits itself to pay for the shortfall.” (page 40);
c) “As an end goal suburban services should be separated and run as JV’s with State and/or local
governments” (page171); and
d) “Suburban railways should be hived off to State governments, via the joint venture route. Until this is done,
the cost of low suburban fares, if these fares are not increased, must be borne by state governments on a
50/50 basis with MOU’s signed with the State government for this purpose” (pages 181/182).
Many of the above recommendations were not included in the Final Report, June 2015 of the Bibek Debroy
Committee largely because. “The interim report had too many things” But they are perhaps indicative of
the potenial policies and institutional options of the Centre in continuing suburban rail oprtations.
1 In September 2014, the Ministry of Railway constituted a Committee, under the Chairmanship of Mr. Bibek Debroy, for looking into the possibility of
mobilization of resources for implementing rail projects, as well as providing recommendations for restructuring the Railway Board, for making it more efficient.
Institutional Development of the Suburban Rail System: Support to Indian Railways in the
Design and Implementation of their Suburban Rail Strategy
3
3. Proposed Institutional Arrangements
3.1 Options Evaluated
Several alternative
institutional options were
evaluated using a wide
range of criteria, the main
variance being the
complexity and ease of
implementation. It was
concluded that a phased
implementation
approach was preferred
with the initial step of
enhancing the role of
MRVC and the
establishing a zonal
railway for the Mumbai
suburban railway region.
But the there is an immediate need to commence the process of creating an enhanced statutory empowered
Mumbai Urban Transport Authority and an associated “ring fenced” Urban Transport Fund.
3.2 Preferred Institutional Arrangements
The MoUD National Urban
Transportation Policy (NUTP)
and the subsequent more
specific processes to establish
statutory empowered Urban
Metropolitan Transportation
Authorities (UMTA) and “ring
fenced” Urban Transport
Funds (UTF), provide
reasonable and proactive steps
to properly structure the
provision of urban transport,
with suburban rail being one of
the potential modal elements.
It is proposed that States
and/or local urban authorities
should lead and implement
this process. However it inevitably will involve partnerships with all levels of government and we believe
parties or stakeholders contributing significantly towards the UTF’s. This may be a lengthy transitional
process. But understanding the end goal and having rationalized interim arrangements put in place to
address shorter and medium term needs, will be absolutely necessary with the backlog of transport issues,
evidenced in India’s metropolitan regions
Even in well-established city regions like London, Tokyo, Seoul, Paris and New York the process of delivering
high quality urban transport are continuously evolving. The need for this rethinking is the consequent of our
Institutional Development of the Suburban Rail System: Support to Indian Railways in the
Design and Implementation of their Suburban Rail Strategy
4
limited ability to forecast changing circumstances, which are often outside the control of an individual
metropolitan region. Having flexible and resilient urban transport delivery plans and structures is more
important than a one vision long term plan. Planning for progressive changes in institutional arrangements
is strength not a weakness.
With this perspective in mind, this study has concluded that efforts to establish longer term arrangements
such as empowered UMTA’s and UTF’s must be done in parallel with more attainable shorter term
enhancements to meet immediate needs. This will involve extensive negotiations between the urban
transport funding partners in Mumbai Metropolitan Region and suburban rail in Mumba is effectively urban
transit.
In MMR, the suburban rail system is
operated by the Western and Central
Railway. These zonal railways are vested
with operation of inter-city passenger and
freight as well as suburban operations
within their jurisdiction. Recent data on
the suburban rail system indicate that
operating cost recovery from fares has
fallen to approaching only 50% 0f
operating costs with subsidy
requirements reached to INR 1,110 crore
during 2013-14. And is likely to reach INR 1400 crores during 2014-15. The Mumbai bus system (BEST),
although being cross subsidized by electricity charges, reported an operating loss of INR 776 crore in year
2014-15. Operating losses of the first phase of the monorail system and Metro Line 1 are further adding to
economic challenges for urban transport. When the capital requirements for both new transport projects
and state of good repair and the upgrading of existing aging infrastructure, is added to the investment needs
it is very clear that new institutional resource mobilization measures are required to be put in place as early
as possible. This was addressed in the Comprehensive Transportation Study carried out by MMRDA during
2005-08, but little progress has been made to date to address this issue. A complicating factor is that it is
now generally accepted that providing good quality public transport has many social and economic benefits
outside of the fare box.
Since IR has many
reservations on
continued funding of
deficits of suburban
railway operations,
which they deem not
part of their core
responsibilities.
They have voiced
the opinion that
State governments
should step forward
to fill the financial
voids of suburban
rail operations. Since
IR believes that
constitutionally;
Institutional Development of the Suburban Rail System: Support to Indian Railways in the
Design and Implementation of their Suburban Rail Strategy
5
urban transport is a State responsibility. MUTP I & II were seen as a step in this direction. However this is a
complicated issue since the operations and funding of the passenger rail services of IR has addressed many
transportation, social and economic factors that vary widely across India and effectively rail fares are set by
the Union government. Providing a sound, transparent and dependent source of funding for urban
transport, which in Mumbai’s case includes the suburban rail system, is a key element of any institutional
arrangement. Consequently, it was concluded that any resilient arrangement for the suburban railway could
only be put in place in conjunction with and in parallel to setting up of a statutory empowered Urban
Transport Authority and related Urban Transport Fund. This conclusion was driven by the inevitable and
perhaps large financial implications of downloading suburban rail services responsibilities to the State.
Potential sources of funding for Urban Transport Fund (UTF) are presented in the figure2 The principle of
“growth should pay for growth is explicit in these funding sources.
The following figure illustrates a possible structure to negotiate and define the respective roles and
undertakings of UMTA and IR in planning, funding and operating the suburban rail system in the MMR which
should be initiated through the current UMTA. A key factor in this negotiation process would be the interim
and ultimate ownership of existing railway assets which will greatly influence the eventual institutional
partnerships. This could likely involve transitional arrangements as the various agencies demonstrate their
capability to effectively manage the responsibilities being transferred. At this time it was concluded that, for
the foreseeable future, IR or possibly a new subsidiary of IR, should continue to operate the suburban trains
under a contractual arrangement through an Enhanced UTA ,which should ultimately include all major
urban modes of travel.
Regional Suburban Rail Corporation
Enhanced UMTAInc. Financing Division
“Ring Fenced”Urban Transport
Fund
Negotiates Detailed
Arrangementswith IR
Examples of UTF Potential Sources
ProgressivelyEnhanced
MRVC Role
UMTA Composition• State Representatives• ULB representatives• Centre representatives
including IR• User representatives• Representatives of other
significant contributorsto UTF
• Establishes Participating Agency Partnership Agreements
• Prepares Business Plans• Defines Service Levels & Performance
Criteria by Modes• Establishes Modal Fare Tariffs • Secures Capital & Operating
Funding/Financing Commitments• Develops Multi-modal Expansion
Plans• Contracts Delivery of Modal Services
Through Subsidiary Agencies & Monitors Performance
Multi-modal Authority
Negotiate Incremental Prime Arrangements with Indian Railways on:• Ownership/use of suburban rail
assets• Tracks ,yards, shops,
rolling stock andancillary facilities
• ROW/Lands/Property• Stations
• General terms and conditionsof operating suburban trainservices on behalf ofUMTA including fiscalarrangements
UMTA Suburban Rail System
The consulting team heard a variety of opinions on the future options for Mumbai. However it was found to
be difficult to establish one voice opinions that reflected the position of the State, IR or the Centre. Perhaps
2Source: Ministry of Urban Development’s study on “Developing Operations Documents for Urban Metropolitan Transport Authority (UMTA) and Urban
Transport Fund (UTF) by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and Voyants Solutions
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positions are evolving too, because the issues are complex and such steps as downloading or clarifying
investment and operational responsibilities and raising fare tariffs are political hot potatoes that are beyond
the mandate of the individuals we consulted with.
It is recommended that through existing UMTA, a high level meeting is convened with key representatives
of the State, IR and the Centre to review the recommendations of this study and if there is concurrence, to
firm up the negotiation process with the objectives to formulate the structure of an enhanced UMTA,
establishing the UTF and identifying the preferred institutional arrangements, for the longer and immediate
term operations of the suburban rail system in the MMR and possible timeframes for implementation. If
possible a mandate should be given to an empowered Implementation Group to negotiate the details of any
restructuring arrangements including the legal steps, financial undertakings and approval processes. Clearly
political input will be required during this process.
While the above is being carried out it is recommended that, the Enhanced MRVC as proposed in this report,
be put in place together with a Time Bound Action Plan to execute an agreed program of further
improvements to the suburban rail system. This will involve financial commitments from the State, IR and
possibly the Centre and funding from lending institutions.
3.3 Enhanced MRVC Model (Interim Arrangement)
It is suggested that, there should be a separate zonal system for suburban rail operations called Mumbai
Suburban Rail (MSR) and would effectively assume the suburban rail responsibility of Western and Central
Railway. MSR would take over all the suburban operations and maintenance of all railway infrastructure and
control of train movements including all long-distance services terminating or passing through the zone
from Western and Central railways. The operational jurisdictions of Western Railway and Central Railway
would be redefined after creation of MSR. A Suburban Rail Operator (a subsidiary of IR) will need to be
formed for operational stability and efficiency. It is proposed that an “Enhanced MRVC” model is set up
which is an institutional change to the existing MRVC which would include at least the following steps that
would be subject to the approval of all funding partners:
a) Determine participating Central Government Partners - IR, Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD),
Ministry of Finance and others;
b) Determine participating State Agency Partners;
c) Prepare new MRVC Incorporation Agreement;
d) Establishing a Suburban Rail System Service Area (SRSSA);
e) Establishing the principle of setting rail fare structures within SRSSA independent of other suburban rail
systems in India;
f) Establish SRSSA fares to be a revenue source to MSR/MRVC;
g) MRVC to prepare and obtain approvals of Annual and 5 Year Business Plans and Operating Budgets,
including financial requirements of partners, and defining clear roles and responsibilities of partners.
Establish financial and procedural agreements/arrangements for services being provided by partners
and/or being outsourced;
h) MRVC to prepare and obtain approval of 5, 10 and 20 year Business Plans (short, medium and long
term) and Budgets for Capital Projects to maintain the suburban rail system in state of good repair, to
achieve approved service levels and to accommodate future growth;
i) Establish the principal of optimizing the transit supportive development of surplus non-operating
railway lands within the SRSSA for development by the private sector and including agreement that
resulting funds be allocated to implement the SRSSA capital program.
j) Formulating mechanisms for effective coordination among the various stakeholders:
k) Continued segregation of main line and suburban operations:
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l) Fast track all non-fare box revenue sources like advertisement, commercialization of stations, land
development, etc.; and
m) Efforts to raise the capital funding from FDI, multi-lateral funding agencies, etc.
4. Expediting Projects
There are immediate concerns being voiced by many agencies involved with major infrastructure projects in
MMR (including MRVC), on resolving, in a timely manner issues, which are causing significant delays in
project execution. Currently with the multiplicity of agencies involved in the public realm and the lack of
urgency and designated authority to quickly resolve multi-jurisdictional issues. This is causing inordinate and
often publically criticised project delays, A single point agency with either the authority make decisions on
issues, or at least to mediate disputes in a time bound manner, is required.
5. Application of Recommendations to Other Indian Cities
Based on a review of the current status of implementation and planning of higher order public transport in
other metropolitan city regions (Kolkata, Chennai, Delhi, Kanpur, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Bangalore,
Ahmedabad and others), it is concluded that there may be merit in applying the MRVC partnership model
(or enhanced models) with respect to existing or proposed suburban rail systems. However each urban
region in India, either having a suburban rail system or aspiring to establish a suburban rail system, will have
its own unique set of characteristics, current institutional arrangements, and immediate and long term
planning and economic development objectives. The MRVC model and the enhancements described in the
report are suggested as good practices to be considered by these metropolitan regions. There is no “cookie
cutter” approach. Each metropolitan region will have to tailor make its own urban transport delivery plans
including, if appropriate, an integrated suburban railways component. The need for an “Enhanced UMTA” is
seen as a critical step in this process.
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Section 1: Background
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1. Urban India is Experiencing Massive Growth
and Trying to Transform
Urban India is experiencing rapid and massive growth. The infrastructure
systems of Urban India are faced with enormous pressures to accelerate
transformation to meet social, economic and environmental demands and
expectations.
This challenge is a world-wide phenomenon, as metropolitan regions have to
reinvent the way urban transportation is provided and managed, with ever
changing political and economic considerations.
Historically, for various reasons, Urban India and particularly the metropolitan
cities have been deficient in terms of its infrastructural systems, including the
transport systems.3
Given the problems and levels of deficiencies, that exist in the transport systems,
across urban India, the governments and/or agencies are making serious and
concerted efforts, in planning, engineering, operations, management and
implementation of the transport systems to ensure enhanced mobility by
providing efficient and safe access and relief to commuters.
Further, cities and metropolitan regions are making efforts to meet the
expectations communities. In the process they are also trying to position
cities, which are considered engines of economic growth at - state, national
and international levels. Despite the best of intentions this has been more than
a challenge, , as the size and extent of deficiencies are so enormous.
Suburban rail systems operated by Indian Railways have been playing and can
play an important role, in some major cities. The planning and development
of multi-modal transportation systems are recognised to be very important in
meeting the intended objective of city transformation and relief to communities.
In this context, it is important to note that governments desire address
through appropriate institutional reforms for efficient delivery of transport
systems to meet the huge and ever growing travel demand. The questions
concerning the respective roles and responsibilities of the Central and State
governments in providing integrated urban transportation are a key issue
that needs to be addressed. This TA is an effort in that
direction.
3 Population growth in major cities is experiencing huge growth. Size of it is massive both in terms of population and but also in physical terms. As a result the trips and trip lengths have been increasing at an alarming rate. This has led to exponential growth in travel demand. Needs of travel demand are many and huge. Meeting needs of essential trips in itself is becoming a matter of serious concern, given the extent of deficiencies in the existing systems.
The available infrastructure, however, is limited. Hence there is a requirement of high capacity transport systems, which need to be made suitable for the commuters, in terms of efficiency and comfort. Sub Urban Rail system has proved to be the most efficient mode of mass transport in Mumbai Metropolitan Region, although its role in India is limited to a few cities only. However, with time, with the growing need for having energy efficient systems in the area of urban transport, the need of utilizing (and developing) sub urban rail is seen as one of the best option. This is only expected to increase over years.
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2. Focus of this Technical Assistance (TA)
The present TA intends to explore the possibility of having an institutional set-
up, wherein the state level transport authorities have their independence in
planning and providing for the suburban rail system, and at the same time to
operate within the framework provided by the Indian Railways.4
3. Objective and Scope of Services under this TA
The objective of this study is - "to support initiatives by Indian Railways for the
implementation of their Strategy for Suburban Rail (as set out in Vision 2020)
through development of legal and institutional arrangements within IR for the
future ownership, planning, expansion, management, financing and operation of
suburban rail services with a specific case study of Mumbai Suburban Rail
System, for such arrangements and the proposed partnership arrangements
between IR and State Authorities".
In order to accomplish the stated objective, the scope of TA2 has been defined
under two parts:
Part A: Development of the Suburban Rail Strategy for IR, which includes
suggesting modifications in existing, or new institutional arrangement for the
Suburban Rail Organisation at the city or state level, after having undertaken a
detailed review of the existing setup and have referred to the best practices
elsewhere in the world.
Part B: Case Study of Mumbai Metropolitan Region, which includes suggesting
an MMR Suburban Rail Organisation, having discussions with the Indian Railway
on the institutional arrangement suggested in Part A.
Detailed scope of services is given at Annexure 3.1.
4 Presently all the sub-urban rail systems are being managed by the Indian Railways. Each city has a different kind of travel demand and commuter characteristics. It is not possible for one national level nodal agency to cater to city specific requirements. In order to keep up with the fast pace of growth of urban transport demand, it is strongly felt that there is a need of separate and one agency at the state or city level, which can efficiently assess, plan and provide for the mobility requirements of the communities. This was appreciated by the Planning Commission way back in 1965, when it took the initiative to set up Metropolitan Transport Teams (MTT) to study the transport problems of the first four metropolitan cities of Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi and Madras and to recommend policies and programs for their improvement. Various expert committees/studies have recognized this fact and have suggested setting up of Metropolitan Transport Authority at the city level. This leads to the need for having a separate sub urban rail system, and associated institutional reform at various state/city levels. Hence, MRVC, on advice of Ministry of Railways, with assistance from the World Bank, under MUTP 2A have initiated this TA, which is called TA2, to study this important aspect.
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Section 2: Problem Setting
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4. Role of Sub Urban Rail Systems in Urban India
Suburban rail system plays a major role in the public transport system of many of
India's major cities. It is defined as a rail service between Central Business District
and suburbs, a city or other locations that draw large numbers of people on a
daily basis.
Mumbai and Kolkata have suburban train service and have separate tracks laid
for the operations of suburban railway network. Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad,
Pune, etc. do not have dedicated suburban tracks but share tracks with long
distance trains. Suburban trains that handle commuter traffic are mostly electric
multiple units (EMUs). Detailed insights to Sub Urban Rail Systems in India are
given at Annexure 4.1.
In 1950-51, the number of passengers availing of suburban rail operations was
412 million, which grew more than eleven fold to 4,552 million by 2013-14. In
terms of passenger-km, however, it grew from 6,511 million in 1950-51 to
1,68,589 million by 2013-14, which is about twenty six times increase over a
period of six decades. Over the same time, average lead length doubled from
15.8 km to 37.0 km, due to the expansion of the cities. Demand for suburban
passenger travel in India has been growing at an annual rate of 3.6% between
2001 and 2014. Between 2011 and 2012 the growth rate went up to 7.8% and
further decreased to 1.7% in 2013-14. In terms of passenger-km, the demand has
shown a growth rate of 5.0% between 2001 and 2014.
With this demand situation it is therefore vital that the Suburban systems play
an important and integrated role in meeting the urban travel demand of
people. The more progressive metropolitan regions across the world have
found it absolutely necessary to coordinate the planning, delivery and funding
of all modes of public transportation including rail based systems, buses and
paratransit. The institutional arrangements need to be in place to provide
seamless urban travel that the travelling urban dwellers both need are now
demanding. This will make it possible to have an efficient Urban India, with
rapid public transport systems in place.
4.1 Suburban Rail Passenger Growth in India
Suburban passenger growth in India has been high and consistent (Table 4-1).
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Table 4-1: Suburban Rail Passenger Growth in India
Year No. of passengers
Originating (million) CAGR
Passenger-km (million)
CAGR Average Lead
(km)
1950-51 412
6,511
15.8
1960-61 680 5.10% 11,770 6.10% 17.3
1970-71 1,219 6.00% 22,984 6.90% 18.9
1980-81 2,000 5.10% 41,086 6.00% 20.5
1990-91 2,259 1.20% 59,578 3.80% 26.4
2000-01 2,861 2.40% 88,872 4.10% 31.1
2008-09 3,802 3.60% 1,24,836 4.30% 32.8
2009-10 3,876 1.90% 1,30,917 4.90% 33.8
2010-11 4,061 4.80% 1,37,127 4.70% 33.8
2011-12 4,377 7.80% 1,44,057 5.10% 32.9
2012-13 4,477 2.3% 1,45,652 1.10% 32.5
2013-14 4,522 1.7% 1,68,589 15.7% 37.0
Source: IR Year Books, IR Annual Report and Accounts, IR Facts and Figures
Urban form and land-use plays a major role in the ridership of suburban rail
system. This results in variation in usage of suburban railways across different
cities. Daily ridership on suburban railway system in Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata,
Chennai, Delhi and Hyderabad is presented in Table 4-2. City wise infrastructure
and operational details are presented in Table 4-3.
Table 4-2: Daily Ridership in Suburban Railway of Different Cities (2013-14)
City/ Region Suburban Railway Length (km) Daily
Ridership (million)
Mumbai Mumbai Suburban Railway 434 8.00
Pune Pune Suburban Railway 103 0.11
Kolkata Kolkata suburban railway 1172 2.80
Chennai Chennai suburban railway 286 1.36
Delhi Delhi Suburban Railway 0.37
Hyderabad MMTS and Suburban in Hyderabad 97 0.20
Source: IR Year Books, IR Annual Report and Accounts, IR Facts and Figures
Table 4-3: Suburban Railway System of different Cities
System City Opening
Year No of Lines
Notes Operated by
Mumbai Suburban Railway Mumbai 1857 3 lines Broad gauge WR, CR
Chennai Suburban Railway Chennai 1931 6 lines Broad gauge SR
Kolkata Suburban Railway Kolkata 1854 3 lines Broad gauge ER and SER
Delhi Suburban Railway Delhi 1982 Broad gauge NR
Multi-Modal Transport System (MMTS) Hyderabad 2003 3 lines Broad gauge SCR
Pune Suburban Railway Pune 2 lines Broad gauge CR
Barabanki-Lucknow Suburban Railway Barabanki-Lucknow 2 lines Broad gauge NR, NCR and NER
Lucknow-Kanpur Suburban Railway Lucknow-Kanpur 2 lines Broad gauge NR, NCR and NER
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4.2 Suburban Rail Operations in Major Metropolitan Areas of India
4.2.1 Mumbai Suburban Railway
The Mumbai suburban railway system acts as the mass transit system carrying
about 8.0 million people daily (2013-14). It effectively handles the highest
passenger density as compared to any other mass transit
system in the world and the fare structure (on a purchasing power parity
adjusted basis), is also one of the lowest in the world.
Mumbai region is served by two of India’s zonal railways, the Western Railway
(WR) and the Central Railway (CR). Both railways carry a combination of
suburban, long distance and freight traffic. As per the CTS for MMR, which was
carried out during 2005-08, the share of travel demand being met by suburban
system in 2005 was about 52% (about 7 million trips/day) with average trip
length being about 24 km. In terms of pass-km the share of suburban rail system
was about 78%. These numbers point to the fact that suburban rail system is the
lifeline of Mumbai.
Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation Ltd (MRVC), a public sector undertaking
under Ministry of Railways, has identified and executed a number of suburban
rail improvement projects for enhancing suburban rail transportation capacity,
thereby reducing the crowding and meeting future passenger/ commuter traffic
requirements. These works have been planned under Mumbai Urban Transport
Projects5 (MUTP) for implementation in phases.
The works under MUTP 1, 2A and 2B will complete the physical separation of the
major part of suburban rail system from the long distance passenger and freight
operation. It is expected that demand will continue to increase further, and
MRVC has put forward proposals for further expansion of system capacity
through implementation of MUTP III beyond 2016. In parallel, the Transform
Study, completed in 2008, has made some proposals for the expansion of the rail
system by 2031. MMRDA is also planning to develop additional urban transport
capacity by setting up Metro rail and monorail corridors.
4.2.2 Chennai Suburban Railway
Chennai Suburban Railway is a commuter rail system in the city of Chennai,
operated by the Southern Railway, one of the operating railway zones of Indian
Railways. Chennai has a complex railway network. Fundamentally Chennai has 4
suburban railway lines, namely North line, West line, South line and MRTS line.
The South West line, West North line and West South line are merely minor
extensions or modifications of the aforementioned suburban lines. The MRTS is
a suburban railway line that chiefly runs on an elevated track exclusively used for
running local EMUs or suburban local trains. No express trains or passenger
trains run on MRTS line. The system uses EMUs operating on alternating current
(AC) drawn from over-head conductor through the catenary system. The total
5 Indian Railways (IR) and Government of Maharashtra (GoM), through MMRDA, MRVC and
the World Bank (WB) are implementing a comprehensive investment plan for improving and expanding the transportation network of Mumbai. This investment plan being partly funded by World Bank (WB) is termed as Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP). Presently, MUTP is being executed in two phases.
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system spans around 900 km, out of which only 286 km have dedicated dual
tracks for suburban EMUs, the rest share tracks with other trains and are called
mainline EMUs (MEMUs). As of 2013, the suburban sector has 580 services,
including 250 in the Beach–Tambaram section, 240 services in the Central–
Tiruvallur section, and 90 in the Central–Gummidipoondi. As of 2011–2012, 1.46
million people use the suburban train services daily. This includes 500,000 in the
Beach–Tambaram section, 350,000 in the Central–Tiruvallur section, and
100,000 in the Central–Gummidipoondi section. This is a 13.2 percent increase
over the previous year.
The following new lines have been proposed in the Second Master Plan by
CMDA as a long-term Urban transportation Scheme.
Avadi – Sriperumbudur – Kanchipuram
Saidapet – Sriperumbudur – Kanchipuram (Partly Elevated)
Sriperumbudur – Oragadam – Chengalpattu
Kelambakkam – Vandalur
St.Thomas Mount – Porur
The Avadi–Sriperumbudur line will cover a distance of 26.65 km. The railways
also plan to lay a 179 km Perungudi–Cuddalore railway line via Mahabalipuram.
4.2.3 Kolkata Suburban Railway
The Kolkata Suburban Railway plays an important part in the life of daily
commuters and tourists alike. It connects various parts of the city, the suburbs
and the nearby districts - North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Nadia, Howrah
and Hooghly districts, just to name a few. It is operated and managed by the
Eastern Zonal Railway and the South Eastern Zonal Railway. The Kolkata Metro
operates the underground Metro services in the city as well. There is a separate
Circular Railway corridor in the city operated by ER.
The network of Kolkata Suburban Railway is operated from two main stations of
the city, Howrah and Sealdah. From Sealdah station, further division of the trains
run to the main section and the south section. The main section connects
northern suburbs and reaches close to the international borders of India and
Bangladesh. The South section connects the southern part of the city and the
southern suburbs. The overall suburban system length is about 1,172 km and
there are 348 suburban railway stations. Daily ridership on the suburban rail
system is about 2.8 millions/day (2013-14).
From Howrah Station, the Kolkata Suburban Railway connects south western
suburbs of Greater Kolkata and the western banks of river Hooghly. This is
further bifurcated into South Eastern and Eastern section.
4.2.4 Delhi Suburban Railway
Delhi Suburban Railway service is a commuter rail service operated by Northern
Railway zone of the Indian railways for the National Capital Region. This Railway
service covers the city state of Delhi, along with the adjoining districts of
Faridabad, Ghaziabad and other adjoining places in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
These services are mostly run using EMU and MEMU rakes. This also includes
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passenger trains and DMU services up to Rewari in Haryana, which is also
considered part of the National Capital Region. Delhi Suburban Railway uses the
same tracks that are used for long distance trains. Daily ridership on the
suburban rail system is about 0.37 millions/day (2013-14).
4.2.5 Hyderabad Suburban/ MMTS Railway
The South Central Railway (SCR) operates Multi-Modal Transport System
(MMTS) as a mass transport system in Hyderabad Metropolitan Area in joint
partnership with erstwhile Government of Andhra Pradesh (GoAP). The first
phase of MMTS started its operations in August, 2003, over a distance of 46 km,
with 27 stations connecting Secunderabad, Nampally, Debirpura, Malakpet,
Falaknuma, Madhapur and Lingampally. The Diesel Multiple Units complement
the MMTS along few other suburban routes like Bolaram, Umdanagar etc.
Presently 115 schedules a day are operational. In addition, Indian Railway
operates 33 schedules on Secunderabad-Bolaram-Medchal-Manoharabad route
as suburban service.
In May 2010, Indian Railways agreed to implement the 105 km Phase-II project of
the MMTS in the same set-up as phase-I. In March 2012, the Union Cabinet
Committee on Infrastructure approved up-gradation of railway infrastructure for
the introduction of Phase II of MMTS in the twin cities, the cost of which is to be
borne by the state as well as Indian Railways. Phase-II will integrate with the
upcoming Metro at nine junctions. Phase II has been programmed into two
stages. In addition to this network, Comprehensive Transportation Study (CTS)
for Hyderabad Metropolitan Area (HMA) has recommended 280 km of
expansion of MMTS under Phase III and Phase IV, which are to be completed by
2041.
4.2.6 Pune Suburban Railway
Pune Suburban Service, also known as Pune Suburban Railway or Pune Local
Railway, is operated by Central Railways (CR). It connects Pune to its suburbs
and neighbouring villages in Pune District, Maharashtra. It operates on two
routes, i.e. from Pune Junction to Lonavala and from Pune Junction to Talegaon.
There are 5 trains which operate on Pune-Talegaon route while 18 trains operate
on Pune-Lonavala route.
The Pune-Lonavala section operated 9-car services till March 2009, after which
12-car services were introduced because of heavy rush of passengers. Although
CR plans to introduce 13-car services on the section, but no time frame for
implementation has been fixed. According to the Railway officials, the pre-
requisite for operating longer trains is extension of existing platform at some
stations. Officials plan to extend the platform to accommodate 15-car services,
keeping in mind future needs. There are plans for suburban operations on Pune-
Daund route which is about 84 km long.
4.2.7 Suburban Railway Operations other places: Barabanki-Lucknow and Lucknow-
Kanpur
Barabanki-Lucknow Suburban Railway (36 km) is a commuter rail service
operated by Northern Railways, North Central Railway and North Eastern
Railway to connect Lucknow with Barabanki. These services are mostly run using
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EMU and MEMU rakes. However it does not have dedicated suburban tracks but
share the tracks with long distance trains. Locally it is called BL meaning
Barabanki Lucknow.
Lucknow–Kanpur Suburban Railway (72 km) is a commuter rail service operated
by Northern Railways, North Central Railway and North Eastern Railway to
connect administrative capital Lucknow with the economic and industrial capital
Kanpur of the state Uttar Pradesh. These services are mostly run using EMU and
MEMU rakes. However it does not have dedicated suburban tracks but share the
tracks with long distance trains. It is fondly called LC meaning Lucknow
Cawnpore (old name of Kanpur).
4.2.8 Planned Suburban Railway Systems in Ahmedabad and Bangalore
A suburban rail system is planned for Ahmedabad and Bangalore. In November
2011, RITES conducted a feasibility study for a suburban rail service in Bangalore
and submitted its report to the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) in
November 2012. The report suggested implementation of a suburban rail service
in stages. The study proposed 3 long routes and 4 long distance routes, thus
making up a total rail network of 440.8 km. Bangalore Suburban Rail
Corporation Limited, a special purpose vehicle to implement the project, is
proposed to be set up for implementing the system.
Similarly, in Ahmedabad also, a Regional Rail System (RRS) was planned by
GIDB in 2003 through Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and RITES. The
objective was to enable people to stay in satellite townships of Ahmedabad, by
ensuring that they could reach their work places using the suburban rail-based
transport system. Gujarat state government is intending to set up a Special
Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to launch its ambitious regional railway project to connect
towns around Ahmedabad, covering 288 km.
4.3 Emerging Urban India and Potentials of Suburban Rail
In 2011, about 377 million persons (31.2% of total population) were living in urban
India and this is the second largest urban population in the world. The urban
population is expected to rise to about 38% by 2026 (535 million). In 2011
there were 53 urban agglomerations, with population more than one million.
Government of India’s National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP) primarily focuses
on the mobility of people, and not the mobility of vehicles. This requires the
public transportation system to be more attractive for users. The challenge for
improved public transport is to provide good quality service at an affordable
price. All the million plus cities need one or the other form of public transport
systems or combination thereof, depending upon the size of the city/ region,
to contain the traffic congestion, reduce the pollution levels, provide
affordable, safe and secure transport facilities. The public transport options
vary between relatively low cost buses operating in mixed traffic, to high cost
rail based suburban system/metros system. Moreover
the size, urban configuration and physical constraints of a city, greatly
influences the provision of viable modes of transport. In recent years the
explosion of private modes of mechanized transport is compounding city
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congestion, but this phenomenon has been partly driven by inadequate
mobility provided by public transport which has not kept pace with urban
growth and intensification. In addition, for a variety of reasons, institutional
reform and capacity building has not responded to the many challenges
associated with introducing and implementing public transport system
improvements.
Projected population of twenty major urban agglomerations, by 2041 is expected to be about 195 million (Table 4-4). The actual suburban rail passenger demand in India, during the period 1950 to 2012 has been studies, and possible growth by 2031 has been assessed (Table 4-5) to be about 3 times of what it was in 2011-12, and in terms of passenger-km it is expected to be about 2 times.
Table 4-4: Population Growth-Major Urban Agglomerations of India
S. No. UA State Population (in Millions) Projected Population (in Millions)
1991 2001 2011 2021 2031 2041
1 Mumbai Maharashtra 12.60 16.43 18.41 21.63 24.54 27.45
2 Delhi Delhi 8.42 12.88 16.31 19.94 24.38 28.33
3 Kolkata West Bengal 11.02 13.21 14.11 15.87 17.42 18.96
4 Chennai Tamil Nadu 5.42 6.56 8.70 10.17 11.80 13.44
5 Bangalore Karnataka 4.13 5.70 8.50 10.48 12.66 14.85
6 Hyderabad Andhra Pradesh 0.87 5.74 7.75 11.66 15.10 18.54
7 Ahmedabad Gujarat 3.31 4.53 6.24 7.62 9.08 10.55
8 Pune Maharashtra 2.49 3.76 5.05 6.32 7.60 8.88
9 Surat Gujarat 1.52 2.81 4.59 6.04 7.57 9.10
10 Jaipur Rajasthan 1.52 2.32 3.07 3.86 4.64 5.41
11 Kanpur Uttar Pradesh 2.03 2.72 2.92 3.45 3.89 4.34
12 Lucknow Uttar Pradesh 1.67 2.25 2.90 3.50 4.12 4.74
13 Nagpur Maharashtra 1.66 2.13 2.50 2.93 3.35 3.76
14 Ghaziabad Uttar Pradesh 0.51 0.97 2.36 3.13 4.05 4.97
15 Indore Madhya Pradesh 1.11 1.51 2.21 2.71 3.26 3.81
16 Coimbatore Tamil Nadu 1.10 1.46 2.15 2.62 3.15 3.67
17 Kochi Kerala 1.14 1.36 2.12 2.52 3.00 3.49
18 Patna Bihar 1.10 1.70 2.05 2.56 3.04 3.51
19 Kozhikode Kerala 0.80 0.88 2.03 2.47 3.08 3.70
20 Thrissur Kerala 0.28 0.33 1.85 2.40 3.19 3.98
TOTAL 62.70 89.25 115.82 141.88 168.92 195.48
Source: Census of India (1991, 2001 and 2011), Consultants estimates (2021, 2031 and 2041)
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Table 4-5: Potential of Suburban Rail Growth in India
Year
Suburban
No. of passengers Originating (million)
CAGR Passenger-km
(million) CAGR
Average Lead (km)
1950-51 412 6,511 15.8
1960-61 680 5.1% 11,770 6.1% 17.3
1970-71 1,219 6.0% 22,984 6.9% 18.9
1980-81 2,000 5.1% 41,086 6.0% 20.5
1990-91 2,259 1.2% 59,578 3.8% 26.4
2000-01 2,861 2.4% 88,872 4.1% 31.1
2008-09 3,802 3.6% 124,836 4.3% 32.8
2009-10 3,876 1.9% 130,917 4.9% 33.8
2010-11 4,061 4.8% 137,127 4.7% 33.8
2011-12 4,377 7.8% 144,057 5.1% 32.9
2012-13 4,477 2.3% 145,652 1.1% 32.5
2013-14 4,552 1.7% 168,589 15.7% 37.0
2016-17 5,074 3.0% 183,857 5.0% 36.2
2021-22 5,741 2.5% 223,691 4.0% 39.0
2026-27 6,338 2.0% 259,319 3.0% 40.9
2031-32 6,828 1.5% 286,309 2.0% 41.9
Source: Indian Railways (for the period 1950-51 to 2013-14) and Consultants estimates (for the period 2016-17 to 2031-32)
Based on the forecasted urban population and the role of the existing suburban
systems, the future suburban rail passenger growth and the potential for
suburban rail expansion in major cities of India is assessed (Table 4-6). Given this
enormous growth, there seems to be a significant increase in demand for sub
urban rail system in India in future.
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Table 4-6: Potential for Suburban Rail Expansion/ Creation in Major UAs of India
Sl. No.
UA
Projected Population by 2041 (in
Millions)
Presence of
Suburban Rail
System
Passengers/day (in
Millions) in 2013-14
Potential for
Expansion/ Creation of
in Future
Proposed Extension of Suburban Lines/Regional Rails
1 Mumbai 27.45 Yes 8.00 Yes MUTP II and MUTP III, MRVC
2 Delhi 28.33 Yes 0.37 Yes IRBT
3 Kolkata 18.96 Yes 2.80 Yes
4 Chennai 13.44 Yes 1.36 Yes Second MP by CMDA
5 Bangalore 14.85 No Yes 204 km, DULT/ BSRCL
6 Hyderabad 18.54 Yes 0.20 Yes 102 km under MMTS + 280 km as per CTS
7 Ahmedabad 10.55 No Yes RRS (288 km)
8 Pune 8.88 Yes 0.11 Yes Pune - Daund Route (84 km)
9 Surat 9.10 No Yes
10 Jaipur 5.41 No Yes
11 Kanpur 4.34 No Yes
12 Lucknow 4.74 No Yes
13 Nagpur 3.76 No Yes
14 Ghaziabad 4.97 No Yes
15 Indore 3.81 No No
16 Coimbatore 3.67 No Yes
17 Kochi 3.49 No No
18 Patna 3.51 No Yes
19 Kozhikode 3.70 No No
20 Thrissur 3.98 No No
Total 12.84
Source: Consultants estimates and websites of Indian Railways and wikipedia
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5. Indian Urban transport – issues and perspective
Indian Urban Transport has been and is under distress. Reasons for this are
many. Deficiencies in provision of supply have been one key aspect. Studies
undertaken suggest that there is huge gap between demand and supply.
Throughout India, transportation plans have been evolved that call for high
levels of capital investment for rural, intercity and urban transport
improvements. Recent studies done for MMR and Hyderabad revealed that
investments needed were to the tune of US $ 50 billion and US $ 40 billion up to
2031 and 2041 respectively. Studies also document that the service levels have
dropped, given the deficiencies in the existing transport systems which is
impeding economic growth objectives.
Urbanization and Urban Transport has been reviewed in India by many studies
commissioned by then Planning Commission, Ministry of Urban Development
and other Policy Documents prepared at national level. Detailed note on Indian
National Transport Committees and Policy Documents is presented in Annexure
5.1. Detailed Perspective and insights on Urban Transport briefly is described in
ensuing sections.
5.1 Study on Traffic and Transportation Policies and Strategies in
Urban Areas in India
The study undertaken for Ministry of Urban Development on “Traffic &
Transportation Policies and Strategies in Urban Areas” by Wilbur Smith
Associates in 2008 is the most recent national level effort. Key aspects of study
on the Traffic and Transportation Policies and Strategies in Urban Areas of India
are:
Between 1950 and 2000 the global urban population has more than tripled to 2.86
billion. The urban population is further forecasted to increase by 80 million every
year. By 2020, 77% of the global urban population (3.26 billion) is expected to be in
developing countries.
Public transport systems have not been able to keep pace with the rapid and
substantial increases in demand over the past few decades. The understanding that
the public transport system in every city is falling short of meeting the increasing
demand as well as the expectation level of the users.
Unless problems are remedied, poor mobility can become a major dampener to
economic growth and also cause quality of life to deteriorate.
Further some of the study findings are:
The share of personalized modes, especially of two wheelers, have gone up
leaps and bounds clocking 12% per annum in the past two decades, while public
transport has generally dwindled;
Operating bus services in congested streets have become increasingly difficult
in congested networks with turnaround times increasing by the day. Fleet sizes
in nearly all public undertakings have declined rather than grown to meet the
demand;
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Another important observation is the decline of NMT especially cycling.
Congestion, increase in trip lengths due to urban sprawl, increase in
purchasing power of people and totally inadequate facilities for cycling have
all contributed to reducing cycling to less than 11% of the mode share which is
down from nearly 30% in 1994. And for pedestrians our city roads have simply
forgotten they exist. The percentage of roads with pedestrian footpaths runs to
hardly 30% in most cities; and
The share of Public Transport over years is observed to have gone down.
Trip Length: With the increase in the sprawl of the city and the job
opportunities being pursued by people seeking pay and career
advancement, is driving up the average trip lengths making mechanized
travel essential for a growing segment of the population.
The management of urban transport infrastructure investment needs
efficient and evidence based criteria to properly guidance, planning,
sustainability, adequate provisions for their maintenance and safeguard.
Apart from the required fund, adequate expertise and proper
institutional mechanism to implement the urban
transport infrastructure is the basic requirement. Further, study also
emphasise that the institutional framework, needs to include
implementation/setting up of Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority
(UMTA) on priority, development and management of central urban
transport database, strengthening of existing institutional setup to enable
the implementing agency to meet the ever growing urban transport
demand, development of urban transport software library and clearing
house for new technologies / major projects/projects involving different
agencies in urban transportation.
5.2 Key Recommendations of Rakesh Mohan Committee Report 6
This report is devoted to setting the a coherent transport strategy for India in the
long term horizon - 2032. The vision is to keep in place a well developed and
competent institutional system for planning, management and execution of
transport by the end of this period. The highlights/sector specific
recommendations of report are as follows.
The primary responsibility for urban transport should lie with state governments.
Over time, urban transport responsibilities should be devolved to metropolitan and
city authorities, particularly for India’s larger cities of more than 1 million
Metropolitan Urban Transport Authorities should be set up as holistic and integrated
decision making and coordinating bodies with adequate technical staff.
Dedicated non-lapsable and non-fungible Urban Transport Funds (UTF) should be set
up at the national, state and city levels. The UTFs should be funded in a robust
manner A Green Surcharge of Rs. 2 on petrol sold across the country; A Green Cess
on existing Personalised Vehicles should be levied at the rate of 4 per cent of the
annual insured value for both car and two wheelers; Urban Transport Tax on
Purchase of New Cars and Two Wheelers: At 7.5 per cent of the total cost of the
petrol vehicles and 20 per cent in case of personalised diesel cars.
6 The National Transport Development Policy Committee (NTDPC) was constituted by the Government of India in 2010
to formulate a long-term transport policy.
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Massive capacity expansion of the railways must be undertaken for both freight and
passenger traffic in a manner that has not taken place since independence.
This will require significant organisational reform of Indian Railways. There is need
for institutional separation of roles into policy, regulatory and management
functions. The Ministry of Railways (or the unified Ministry of Transport in the future)
should be limited to setting policies; a new Railways Regulatory Authority would be
responsible for overall regulation, including the setting of tariffs; and the
management and operations should be carried out by a corporatized entity, the
Indian Railways Corporation (IRC) to be set up as a statutory corporation, which
would retain many of the quasi governmental powers endowed to the Railways
under the current Act. Existing railways corporations such as CONCOR, DFCCIL, and
the like will become subsidiaries or joint ventures of the IRC.
5.3 Financial and Institutional Study of Combined Metropolitan Rail
Operations in Bombay, 1996 - The Indian Railway Board undertook a detailed
study on Financial and Institutional Study of Combined Metropolitan Rail
Operations in Bombay’ under the BUTP-II in 1996. The report reviewed the
institutional, legal and financial status of the Mumbai suburban rail system,
consisting of the suburban sections of the Central and Western Railways. Some
of the aspects covered in the study are presented and/or reproduced as under:
Corporatization of IR to create an arm's length relationship with the government;
Institutional Section covers description of the network and operations, the
institutional framework for urban transport in Mumbai, current urban transport
policies for India generally, and for Mumbai in particular, relevant legal framework for
the operation of suburban railways in India and property development in Mumbai,
performance of the suburban system, review of institutional structures in use
elsewhere in the world within which suburban railways are operated and identification
of key issues that have been identified as criteria against which an alternative
institutional arrangement should be assessed;
Review of organisational structures and human resources;
Patronage and revenue forecast which includes forecast of both fare and non-fare
revenue;
Medium term Capital Investment Program for Bombay suburban system, based on
committed and planned works as well as the rolling stock investment requirement for
replacement of the existing fleet and for the provision of additional capacity in line
with expected growth;
Real Estate Development Strategy for the IR land in Mumbai;
Asset Valuation which covers various issues pertaining to fixed assets with specific
emphasis on requirements for the BSRO;
Financial Model development for BSRO;
Five Year Business Plan and financial projection for Mumbai suburban rail operations
and BRDC under interim option (recommended through the study) and outline of
Business Plan for BSRA under the long term option(recommended through the study);
Action Plan with a supporting time line to transform the institutional structure of
Mumbai suburban rail system from the then arrangement to interim option and
thereafter to the long term option.
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6. Institutional Arrangements for Urban
Transport in India
Urban and urban transport management has become very critical. The
institutional and governance needs specific attention, as these are under some
level of discussion since early 1980s. By late 1990s or early 2000 the need for
urban transport authority is being felt. Formally, in the first national urban
transport policy (NUTP), the Government of India (GoI) has advised that there
should be a single Urban Metropolitan Transport Authority which is unified to
look after the urban transport planning, engineering, operations and
management, as UMTA. Given that this thinking has been there for a quite a
while, and some studies and plans recommended UMTA for metropolitan
areas. These include - Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad. Although steps have
been taken to set up UMTA’s they fall well short of the intent of the GoI policy
objectives and recommendations. This suggests that there are either
fundamental issues of intent, or perhaps, difficult to overcome political or
institutional impediments to the implementation of the UMTA policy that needs
higher levels attention and resolution.
India is not alone in comprehensively addressing urban transport. Even in
metropolitan regions, having advanced and integrated arrangements for urban
transport, the processes and responsibilities continually evolve and are subject
to periodic rationalization and modification. The key is to aggressively
commence the process of implementation even if the ultimate integration goals
may take many years to achieve.
Recently, the GoI, (MOUD) is making new efforts to consult with stakeholders,
to fully establish UMTA in the larger metropolitan regions across India.
Implementing commitments at the State level will be fundamental to the
outcome. A critical issue is the constitutional inability of a Metropolitan Region
effectively raises resources and independently manages the funding of regional
scale infrastructure and service programs. International experiences reveal that,
even where there a well-structured metropolitan agency, funding partnerships
are necessary between all levels of government. Further the funding
mechanisms being employed by agencies target a wide array of resource
opportunities well beyond direct user charges.
While above are crucial to urban transport, the following other major issues
have been identified, each of which needs to be
addressed, if the problems currently faced by the railway are to be successfully
overcome:
a) At national level, the present institutional structure of Railway Board
focuses more on inter-city passenger services and freight services, as
providing these services is considered its prime responsibility. Its focus on
provision of suburban services is taken as a secondary responsibility. In the
recent past, some of the state governments, with the help of MoUD are
implementing the metro systems (Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai,
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Hyderabad, Kolkatta, Jaipur, etc.) and BRTS (Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad,
Ahmedabad, Vijayawada, etc.). Brief details on Urban Public Transport
Scenario in India is presented in Annexure 6.1. In most of the cases, the
plans are implemented without proper coordination among the major
stakeholders. Each organisation conceives the project keeping in mind their
own organisational strategies without following a rational and holistic
approach for the city/ region. There is a need for good coordination
between central government ministries which are responsible/ relevant for
urban transport7;
b) Despite their challenges, suburban railway services in Mumbai, Kolkata,
Chennai, etc. operate remarkably well, providing a service that is generally
reliable. However, the challenges faced by the suburban railway system
vary from city/ region to city/ region. Mumbai faces the challenges of inter
alia, limited funding, severe overcrowding, encroachment into the right-of-
way by squatters’ hutments and into station approaches by retailers and
hawkers, delays at level crossings and poor track drainage. Any
organisational or institutional changes must not create any risk of reducing
the operational efficiency of the system in any way and should be carefully
designed to ensure the maximum focus on suburban operations;
c) In order to operate efficiently, there needs to be a significant amount of
cooperation between the railways, state government and local
government. On the railways’ side, their biggest single operational problem
is their inability to control their right of way, in particular, issues such as
encroachment, level crossing delays and poor track drainage. On the state
government side there does not appear to be any mechanism or incentives
by which any accountability can be established for the quality of suburban
railway services;
d) The capital funding arrangements for the suburban railway system appear
to be unclear and arbitrary. IR is unwilling to invest in suburban systems as
a matter of policy, whilst the state governments seem reluctant to invest in
a system over which they have very limited neither control nor ownership
of the asset being created. IR’s view appears to be partly based on fears of
setting precedents, as well as the view that the suburban services are
inherently incapable of repaying any investments made. The net effect is
that capital funds are limited and fail to keep pace with system
requirements;
e) Surveys have indicated that passengers in Mumbai are prepared to pay
higher fares for better quality services. Fares are currently constrained to a
common level throughout India, although this is a matter of policy rather
than a strict legislative requirement. Increasing local fares in a particular
city/region, like Mumbai suburban area where the people are willing to pay
more, would increase the funding available for capital works; and
f) One of the major sources of funds for the proposed investment programme
is planned to be surplus revenues from property development of either
7 MoUD is planning to setup a National Urban Transport Authority of India (NUTAI) and has set up a Working Group for
drafting the law. NUATI comprises representatives from various Central Government Departments, State Governments and Institutions working in the field of urban transport. A draft of the NUTA Bill has been prepared by Urban Mass Transit Company (UMTC) which is under review. Hope NUTAI would become a platform for discussions/ debates on policies towards planning, coordination, institutional and sources of funding for urban transport infrastructure.
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redundant railway land or air space above the operational railway.
Experience throughout the world has shown that income from land will be
maximized if the land is managed by a specialist property development
group, rather than being handled as part of a railway’s general civil
engineering activities. Such a group would also need to be able to function
without being constrained by the cumbersome bureaucratic procedures,
typically in use within Government agencies such as IR. The group would
need to be supported by simple institutional mechanisms to enable income
from the development of railway land in major metropolitan areas (where
suburban railway system is under operation) to be channelled into
investment in the suburban railway network. The mechanism would also
need to provide an effective link between land development planning and
railway planning to ensure that commercial development is not authorized
on land which may be required for future railway expansions/ extensions.
The issue of the need for physical separation of the different types of services is a
matter of considerable debate within IR. A regime, in which the suburban trains
are fully segregated from mail express and freight, by providing them with
dedicated tracks, would undoubtedly provide an easier operation environment,
particularly for the non-suburban operations. Nevertheless, it is not an absolute
technical requirement and there are many examples around the world of high-
density suburban operations sharing infrastructure with other operators under a
common control. Clear operating procedures need to be established to ensure
fair access to the available track capacity and cost-sharing mechanisms need to
be developed. However, such problems have been overcome elsewhere and, in
our view, shared use of infrastructure is not an insuperable obstacle to
organisational and institutional restructuring.
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7. Mumbai Suburban Rail System- Issues and
Concerns
In order to make the suburban railways efficient, it is required that the strategy
formulation for the two is undertaken differently. This has been recognized by
various studies/committees like Financial and Institutional Study of Combined
Metropolitan Rail Operations in Bombay (1996), IR Vision 2020, White Paper on
Indian Railway 2009. Beyond this the Working Group Report for Twelfth Five Year
Plan on Railway Sector Organisational Reform also states the need for separation
of policy making and operational responsibility at the Railway Board,
reorganisation on business lines of railways wherein one of the aspects is related
to maintaining separate profit-centres from long distance and suburban traffic
movement and empowering the Zonal Railways.
With the incorporation of the MMRDA in 1975, a number of transport projects
were implemented under MUTP. However, the World Bank emphasised the need
of developing both suburban rail and road projects for MMR, since rail system for
movement of commuter traffic was gaining importance. Following this, the Indian
Railway, entered into an in principal agreement with the GoM, to participate in
the MUTP projects on 50:50 basis. In 1999, MRVC was established to look after
the implementation of the suburban rail projects being funded under MUTP.
Present organisation structure of MRVC is presented in Annexure 7-1.
Issues and problems as noted are applicable to Mumbai suburban rail system.
Mumbai needs similar and/or more attention, given the size of travel demand, we
feel Mumbai did receive attention and an institutional set up in the form of MRVC
is being set up, to part address the aspects needing attention. This need to be
further refined and appropriately addressed keeping the long term needs of
Mumbai Region.
In many respects suburban rail system serving the Mumbai region has more of the
characteristics of an urban metro than a traditional suburban rail system.
Although station spacing may be slightly longer than a metro, the high frequency
of trains, travel speeds, the preponderance of intra-urban travel function and the
huge number of passengers being carried, are clearly traditional metro attributes.
Consequently the integration of suburban rail, metro and bus services and means
of access to stations is critical to the door-to door journeys of people. Mumbai
could not exist without its suburban rail system, and this dominant and non-
alternative dependability is of concern.
8. MRVC and its Mandate
The Mission of MRVC is to develop world class infrastructure for an efficient, safe and sustainable railway system in Mumbai Suburban section to provide comfortable and friendly train services to the commuters.
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The Objectives of MRVC are: 1. Integrate suburban rail capacity enhancement plans with urban development plan for Mumbai and propose investments; 2. Implement the rail infrastructure projects in Mumbai suburban sections; 3. commercially develop Railway land and airspace in Mumbai area to raise funds for suburban railway development and 4. Resettlement & Rehabilitation of Project Affected Households.
The Board of Directors of MRVC comprise the Chairman and Managing Director,
along with his team of Directors and some other officers. The total staff strength
of the organisation is 219, across the different hierarchy.
9. Problem Statement with Respect to Suburban
Rail Transport in India
9.1 Suburban Railway Operations
Urban areas are growth magnets. Hence, for development, attention needs to be
given to urban areas. The cities in India have been growing over the years. The
needs of communities are also becoming bigger. To meet these needs the
infrastructure requirement, including that of the transport systems, is also going
up, and is further expected to increase in future in all urban areas.
Suburban rail, urban rail, commuter rail, or regional rail, plays a major role in the
public transport system of many of India's major cities. Suburban rail is defined as
a rail service between central business district and suburbs, a city or other
locations that draw large numbers of people on a daily basis. The trains providing
such services are normally termed suburban trains and are the ones that stop at
all, or nearly all, of the stations along a route. In Mumbai, these are referred as
"local trains" or "locals". Most of these tend to be quite slow.
Suburban rail in India operates on lines shared with other passenger and freight
trains (like Lucknow-Kanpur Suburban Railway) or a combination of dedicated
suburban lines and lines for long distance trains (like the Mumbai Suburban
Railway).
The infrastructure, in India, is owned by Indian Railways and usually operated by
one or more of the railway zones of Indian Railways. In some cities of India, the
opening of rapid transit systems has led to a decline in use of the Suburban rail
system.
Mumbai and Kolkata have local EMU suburban train service and have more or less
separate tracks laid for the operation of suburban railway network. Chennai,
Delhi, Hyderabad, Pune, etc. do not have dedicated suburban tracks but share
tracks with long distance trains (In Chennai, only one corridor i.e. MRTS corridor
has dedicated tracks for suburban operations). Suburban trains that handle
commuter traffic are mostly Electric Multiple Units (EMUs). They usually have
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nine or twelve coaches and sometimes even fifteen to handle rush hour traffic (as
in Mumbai).8
In major metropolitan areas of India (Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Delhi,
Hyderabad, Bangalore, etc.), the suburban areas are growing fast with a
preference for cheaper housing as compared to those in the core/CBD areas.
However, the concentration of employment is still in core/CBD areas, resulting in
need for developing faster transportation systems. Towards this, in the past,
Indian Railways has developed suburban rail systems in Mumbai, Kolkata,
Chennai, Delhi, Bangalore, etc. IR is responsible for providing, operating and
maintaining the rail system in the country at all levels – national, regional and
urban. The same rail network is being used for both, long distance as well as at
the suburban and regional level movement in all cities except for Mumbai, where
some of the lines are planned only for suburban rail. The management at all levels
of rail operations is being handled very efficiently by IR.
The recent past has witnessed multiple fold increase in size of cities, which is
putting undue pressure on the IR for planning for meeting the transport needs of
the cities. This multiplies the responsibility of the IR, more so because the
functions of the two railway systems are different to some extent. The national
level rail system deals with both freight as well as passenger transportation over
long distances. The suburban rail system, on the other hand, deals with very short
trip lengths (on an average about 37 km observed in 2013-14), primarily of
passengers who are daily commuters. Hence the strategy for running a suburban
rail system, as against the national level rails is bound to be different. In order to
make the suburban railways efficient, it is required that the strategy formulation
for the two is undertaken differently.
9.2 Urban Transport-Utilisation of existing infrastructure Problem
Sub Urban Rail needing Urgent Attention
Urbanisation is an inevitable outcome of any development process. With rapid
urbanization, the Urban Transport in India needs more attention than ever before.
Some of the key issues/aspects of the urban transport scenario in India needing
appreciation and attention are:
lack of adequate and hierarchical road network
lack of optional utilization of existing transport network
low supply levels of bus system and public transport systems
lack of coordinated provision of public transport system
lack of coordinated land use and transport planning
increasing trends of urban sprawls
rapid increase in travel distances/lengths
high growth of private modes
exponential growth of travel demand
multiplicity of organizations and no coherent effort
needing transport mode specific institutional arrangements/organizations
8 Mumbai suburban services have various such designations (not all of them official, but in wide use). A 'fast' train or
'fast local' is essentially one that is fast (runs express, skipping stops) until a certain station, and from that station onwards runs like a local, e.g., the Virar Fast runs express to Borivli, and hence is a local. The Karjat Fast is an express until Kalyan. The Ambarnath Fast Local goes CSTM - Dadar - Thane and thereafter stops at all stations on its route. The Borivli Fast Local used to run (1980s) from Jogeshwari to Bombay Central non-stop.
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active participation and partnership of local/state governments
These issues have been there and are attracting attention of authorities. Efforts
have been on to come out with appropriate remedial measures and solutions in
attending to these concerns. It is these efforts that makes urban India mobile
today and situation is not therefore grim. Measures taken thus far included many -
planning, operational, financing, management and institutional.
Pronouncedly, more recently, cities are wanting to transform and position
themselves as most competitive cities and attract investments to be on national
and global platforms.
Importance of Urban transport had been recognized several decades back, at
least policy level. Now, it needs concerted effort in planning and appropriate
institutional framework.
9.3 Problem Domain
India’s urban population is expected to grow by over 10 million each year for the
next 20 years. Most of this growth will occur by expanding or densifying existing
cities. Existing rail corridors are often the only available unobstructed higher
order transit potential corridors yet to be exploited. Transportation planners in
urban centres often want to capture any available capacity on these corridors for
urban rail transport. Understandably IR are often reluctant to grant access to
their rights of way to protect future inter-city passenger and freight business.
However each city is different, each rail line has different operating
characteristics and therefore capturing available capacity for say suburban trains
has to be evaluated on a case by case basis.
Another factor that has been evident in many cities across the world is the need
for rail freight trains to enter city centres is diminishing as freight handling
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moves to containers which requires truck/train intermodal yards often best
located on unencumbered large land parcels on the periphery of the city.
This can afford the opportunity for
railway rationalization and freeing up
rail corridor capacity but again each
city is different. If at grade rail transit
is possible on rail corridors, which
diminishes the need for say elevated
metro corridors, there may be win/win
transportation and urban
redevelopment opportunities.
This brings into play the function: funding: form relationship discussed in this
report on formulating railway institutional arrangements. Such opportunities are
unlikely to be on the radar screen of IR but are often conceived by urban and
transportation planners. The formation
of business and institutional
partnerships to execute such
rationalization projects has to address
both the problem and opportunity sides
of regenerating our cities in cost
effective ways
One of the key problem areas of dealing
with suburban rail in India is that the
fare tariffs of rail passenger travel has been artificially depressed to the point
that it is negatively impacting the viability of new rail or road based transit
projects particularly in Mumbai
Mumbai is a unique example of the potenial effeciveness of an suburban rail
system, with 35% of all rail passenger trips in India using the Mumbai suburban
rail system. The system carries 59% of all mechanised person trips in the MMR
and 78% of the person-km. trips which is a better measure of traffic congestion
relief. Even carrying 8.0 million passenges per day the system is operating at
only a 50% recovery rate largely due to high inflation in operating costs and no
increase in fares.
The following comments were made in the Interim Report, March 2015 of the
Mr. Bibek Debroy committee9.
e) “there are no convincing argument in favour of low user charges across the
board. If subsidies are warranted for those who are poor there are better
ways of targeting them, such as direct benefit transfers.”(page 23);
f) “If the government, as opposed to the market, wants Railway operators
(public or private) to provide certain services that fall short of market terms
(such as an unviable route or unviable fare for poor passengers) both IR and
9 In September 2014, the Ministry of Railway constituted a Committee, under the Chairmanship of Mr. Bibek Debroy, for looking into the possibility of mobilization of resources for implementing rail projects, as well as providing recommendations for restructuring the Railway Board, for making it more efficient. More details are presented in Chapter 11.
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private operators will be obliged to provide them as long as the government
(Union or State) commits itself to pay for the shortfall.” (page 40);
g) “As an end goal suburban services should be separated and run as JV’s with
State and/or local governments” (page171); and
h) “Suburban railways should be hived off to State governments, via the joint
venture route. Until this is done, the cost of low suburban fares, if these fares
are not increased, must be borne by state governments on a 50/50 basis with
MOU’s signed with the State government for this purpose” (pages 181/182).
Many of the above recommendations were not included in the Final Report, June
2015 of the Mr. Bibek Debroy Committee and were explained in an following
interview10
with Mr Bibek Debroy.
“The interim report had too many things. As a consequence, the big things tend
to get missed. And tend to focus on the small things. So, in the final report, what
we have done is to ensure that we do not lose sight of the big picture. And the
three big building blocks in our report are transformation in accounting, or, in
other words, a shift towards commercial accounting; human resources issues, or
breaking down the silos; and independent regulator.”
The desire of IR to at least download the fiscal responsibilities for providing
suburban rail service to the States and the need to rationalize fare tariffs has
been on the table for several years without reaching any conclusion. It is a
politically charged issue that is difficult to deal with in the climate of protract
election cycles.
The apparent reluctance of State officials to assume the mandate for suburban
rail may be a reflection of both fiscal and political concerns. However the
mandate issue will not go away and perhaps seeking a transitional and
progressive partnering between the Centre and States offers the best route for
rationalization.
9.4 Focus Areas
The focus of the services provided by the railways at the suburban level is:
a) Maintaining punctuality –delay by even a few minutes in the suburban rail system is bound to lead to chaos among the passengers. This breaks the link in commuting, especially if the trips involve changing of number of trains/other modes of transport;
b) Comfort – Since traveling in a suburban train is a part of daily routine of the commuters, it needs to provide a comfortable travel. If the comfort of passengers is not given enough heed, it may result in loss in productivity of the commuters due to the exhaustion while travelling, thus affecting the national productivity;
c) Providing enough space for movement of passengers to enable high turnover of the same - Every station on suburban route, witnesses heavy alighting and boarding of passengers;
d) Private Sector Participation – Unlike the national railways, suburban railways may have higher possibility of PPP, due to it being restricted to one jurisdiction, and the possibility of taking decisions unanimously on aspects related to giving sweeteners to the concessionaire for making the project attractive enough from commercial perspective
11;
e) Station area development – Since the passengers using a suburban rail system are daily commuters, the strategy needs to focus on providing the items of daily needs of
10 The Hindu, 14th June, 2015. 11 Overview of PPP Opportunities in Suburban Rail Sector is presented in Annexure 9-1.
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commuters in and around the station area. This would help in attracting passengers from other modes of PT on to the rail system;
f) Network to meet demand at micro level - need to plan to meet demand by each route over the day, at the same time seeing that the capacity is not left un-utilized. This asks for a detailed multi-modal transport study at the city level, which may be too much of a responsibility for a national level organization to undertake; and
g) Expansion plan of the suburban rail network has to be more flexible and demand responsive in nature, with need for faster and quicker decisions to be taken for implementation of required new lines or up-gradation of the existing one.
h) Door to door travel, efficiency and safety - Both General Managers of CR and WR have expressed views regarding the way the present suburban railway operates including, the need to consider the efficiency and safety of overall door to door travel, the overcrowding and unacceptable safety conditions, the need for increased financial involvement of the State and looking beyond the fare box for operational funding.
9.5 SWOT Analysis
The above stated focus areas are not totally different from the national railway,
but the intensity level in the two systems varies substantially. In case of
suburban system, the tolerance level is fairly low. Hence there is a need that the
strategy developed for the suburban rail system is separate and specific to the
travel characteristics of the city/region. A high level SWOT of problem statement
is given under:
Strengths Weaknesses
Indian Railways own track, station, maintenance infrastructure for development and operation of suburban systems.
IR Owns lands in prime areas which can be used for commercial development and raising the resources.
Redevelopment along with commercial development potential/ opportunities of existing suburban railway stations.
IR has wealth of experienced administrative, technical and maintenance staff for delivery, operation and maintenance of suburban railway system.
GMs vested with multiple tasks i.e. taking care of the inter-city as well as suburban systems development, maintenance and operations.
Centralized decision making i.e. high dependence on Railway Board.
Coordination problems with other stakeholders
Difficulties in raising the resources for capital investment needs and O&M losses on suburban railway systems from the internal sources
Difficulties in convincing the State Government or its entities or ULBs to take part in joint development of suburban railway infrastructure, sharing of O&M losses, etc.
Expected higher time even for small changes in the institutional reforms
Railway unions resistance to any institutional change
Opportunities Threats Development of rail infrastructure in
urban areas for both inter-city and intra-city (suburban operations) operations and effective use of the stations for commercial development.
Integrated development of intercity rail terminals and intra-city suburban system especially in greenfield areas.
Over-burdened with the responsibility of suburban railway development, maintenance and operation which is not the responsibility of the Indian Railways
9.6 Key Areas Needing Attention
The key issues with respect to this as we see are:
a) Multiplicity of agencies;
b) Need for state government partnership;
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c) Definition of ownership;
d) Skills sets in planning and operating agencies;
e) Coordination;
f) Financing and funding;
g) Defined specific and region-wide institutional arrangement to plan and manage the systems;
h) Planning and prioritization;
i) Resolution relating to conflicts of asset ownership; and
j) Setting up national and state local level agency.
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Section 3: Institutional Options
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10. Indian Railway’s view on Suburban Rail with
Focus on Operations and Institutional Aspects
The IR Vision 2020, December 2009 suggests12
that -
a) ‘The look and feel of Indian Railways in 2020 will be radically different from
what it is today. Railways will eliminate shortage and meet the demand for rail
travel in full. Passengers travelling long distance or short distance between
cities or availing of our suburban services must find the journey on Indian
railways pleasant- fast, punctual, comfortable, clean and indeed memorable;
b) In the suburban segment, the main challenges are the creation of adequate
capacity, segregation of commuter lines from long-distance lines and
expansion of services to ensure comfort to commuters. Partnership with state
authorities will be necessary for development of suburban rail systems.
Railways may also aim at integrating the metro-rail and suburban rail-systems
under a single management in partnership with the respective state/city
authorities;
c) Partnership with state and city authorities will be established to augment the
infrastructure and manage suburban service under a single management.
Suburban trains must be passenger friendly with adequate accommodation for
all categories of passengers, especially for ladies, students, senior citizens and
the physically disabled. Both suburban and long distance trains must also look
smart and colourful, reflecting our belief in and commitment to ‘change for a
Better Tomorrow’;
d) Development of Metro rail services in unserved cities is another area in which
the Indian Railways has significant core competence. It has all the capabilities
to execute such projects with substantial cost reduction. A separate Indian
Railway Metro Development Authority could be formed for this purpose. This
authority could also execute Light Rail and Mono Rail projects, wherever
appropriate;
e) Commercial utilization of vacant railway land, not required for operational use,
can generate sustainable streams of revenue to finance the growth of
Railways. This would be done in a professional, transparent and accountable
manner;
f) Judicious internal reorganization and decentralization of decision-making and
authority, both financial and for execution purposes, to zonal and divisional
levels. In the past, corporatization within railways, has yielded good results.
Examples are Container Corporation, RITES, IRFC, IRCON International and
other PSUs of Railways.’
12 The excerpts are taken from IR Vision 2020
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The White Paper on IR, 2009 states that -
One of the issues under passenger business highlighted was “Highly subsidized
suburban transport”. The possible options documented under passenger
business are:
o Segregation of suburban business in Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai by
creating a separate administrative unit;
o State Government to share the cost/ losses in the operation and
maintenance of socio economic lines;
o Investment by municipal bodies/State governments for development of
suburban rail network;
o Policy initiatives/ incentives for construction of rail lines by private sector;
and
o Providing incentives to Private sector for uneconomic branch line
rehabilitation/ operations.
Development of suburban rail network should be done through cost sharing
with local bodies and State Governments for faster expansion of rail networks;
Organisational change has to be brought about for freight and passenger
services including suburban services operating on a common network;
At present there is no organizational differentiation of suburban, intercity and
long-distance service streams from a business point of view;
There has been substantial growth in passenger traffic, especially in suburban
second class, second class mail/express and in second class ordinary. Hence a
need to meet this high demand efficiently; and
Despite the best efforts of the Railways to provide efficient train services along
with several passenger friendly initiatives, overcrowding on trains, especially
suburban trains, has been a major concern.
The Working Group Report for 12th
Five Year Plan: Railway Sector–
Organisational Reforms recommendations are -
Separation of Policy Making and Operational Responsibility at the Railway
Board
− Proposed separate executive body for day-to-day operations monitoring
and decision making with power of oversight over the Zonal Railways and
project organisations
− Special quarterly meetings by Railway Board where fixed number of
external experts (as special invitees) having expertise in technical,
managerial and financial and economic fields
Hiring off of non-transportation tasks: The entire range of activities falling
outside the core transportation operations such as manufacturing of rolling
stock, parcels, management of major stations and staff colonies, etc. would
be critically reviewed from the perspective of either retention or outsourcing/
hiving off on the basis of organic integration with operational need and the
logic of “make or buy”.
Reorganization on business lines
− Freight transportation, inter-city and suburban passenger transportation,
parcel and miscellaneous activities as separate profit-centres
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− Assistance of private partners/ SPVs for development and management of
terminals, marketing, road bridging, etc.
− On suburban rail passenger: Attempt should be to achieve physical
separation of the long-distance network for the suburban network
Empowerment of Zonal Railways
− Zonal Railways would be made accountable for return on capital, transport
output, profitability and safety
11. Recent efforts towards restructuring railway
board
In September 2014, the Ministry of Railway constituted a Committee, under the
Chairmanship of Bibek Debroy, for looking into the possibility of mobilization of
resources for implementing rail projects, as well as providing recommendations
for restructuring the Railway Board, for making it more efficient. The terms of
reference for the committee included:
“(i) Reorganizing and restructuring the Board and subsequently the Department
so that policy making and operations are separated, the Department does
not work in silos, policy making focuses on long term and medium term
planning issues and operations focuses on day-to-day functioning of the
Organization;
(ii) Promote exchange of Officers between the Railways and other departments;
(iii) Estimate financial needs of the Railways and ensure appropriate frameworks
and policies are in place to raise resources, both internally and from outside
the Government, to enable Railways to meet the demands of the future; and
(iv) Examine and suggest modalities for implementing the existing Cabinet
decision on setting up a Rail Tariff Authority and give recommendations.”
In March 2015, the Committee gave its interim recommendations. Since the study
has focus on the Railway Board and the Indian Railway, the recommendations do
not deal at large with the suburban railways. It states that ‘at this stage, the
committee has no comments to make on … MRVC’. However, some of the
recommendations, which have reference to the suburban systems have been
extracted as follows:
Over time, the suburban services should be separated from the Railway Board,
and should run in joint venture with the State and/or local government. The
tariff structure should be fixed by the state and/or the local government;
On projects which are implemented under the cost sharing mechanism, the
incidence of subsidy burden should be clearly indicated between the Central
and State government on one hand and the Indian Railway on the other. The
subsidy should include both on capital cost as well as operating costs.
As already mentioned, the suburban railway system should be totally
separated from the Railway Board. However, till such time as this gets
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materialized, in case of any losses arising due to low tariff, these should be
borne by the State government on 50:50 basis. Regarding this, a MOU is
suggested to be signed with the State government.
In order to encourage competition the following steps are recommended:
− ‘Decentralization, particularly for local passenger services (ie.
Suburban or non-trunk routes) which rarely cover costs, but which
local government may want to subsidize;
− Separation of rail track from rolling stock and unbundling the former;
− Separation and unbundling of no-core as well as peripheral activities.’
IR should have two separate ‘organizations’, one responsible for track and
other infrastructure, and the second which should be looking after the train
operations
Unfortunately, these recommendations were not included in the Final
Report, June 2015 of Mr. Bibek Debroy so their status is somewhat
uncertain.
12. Lessons from Review of International Case
Studies
A number of cities13
, across the globe, have been making endeavor to develop
efficient suburban rail systems to meet the growing demand emanating from
increased urban mobility levels. Some cities have been successful in developing
an efficient suburban rail system, whereas, others have not been so successful.
They have experienced delays in operationalization of the system. In order to
benefit from the experiences elsewhere, a review of the international case
studies has been undertaken. The outcome of the review, by each city, has been
given at Annexure 12-1. The lessons drawn from the case studies, have however,
been presented in the ensuing sections.
12.1 Lesson from Success in Suburban Rail
The share of suburban rail in the total urban transport varies significantly across
the cities. Among the cities which have been selected for review14
, it is seen that
in the city of Tokyo, the share is highest at almost 40% of all the motorised
modes, followed by Sao Paulo, where the share is at 15%. Some of the
institutional aspects worth considering from these two cities are as follows
(detailed analysis given at Table 12-1):
The suburban rail/ commuter rail infrastructure is owned by either the
regional or the metropolitan government;
13 Tokyo (Japan), Paris (France), Berlin (Germany), Moscow (Russia), London (UK), New York (USA), Sao Paulo (Brazil) and Hong Kong.
14 Tokyo (Japan), Paris (France), Berlin (Germany), Moscow (Russia), London (UK), New York (USA), Sao Paulo (Brazil) and Hong Kong.
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The system is operated under the instruction of the metropolitan
government by either private companies or by company created for the
purpose;
The metropolitan level agency is responsible for preparing the Vision as well
as the strategic plan for development of suburban rail system;
Decision on strategic service planning, service expansion and service
standards are made by the metropolitan government, who is also
responsible for other aspects of transport and urban development within the
metropolitan area;
Fare policy is decided by the state, region or city government; and
Capital cost is funded/ shared by the national and the state government on
‘project to project’ basis.
12.2 Lesson from Delayed implementation of Suburban Rail
The Manila Light Rail Transit System Line 2, also known as MRT2, is a rapid
transit line in Manila in the Philippines. Generally it runs in the east-west
direction along the Radial Road 6 and a portion of the Circumferential Road 1.
This project took 14 years to progress from inception to operations. Originally it
was conceived as a Build-Operate-Transfer project but initial procurement was
unsuccessful. It is an automated 14 km radial metro line and was fully operational
from 2004. The project was changed and became a traditional public sector led
development, funded through Japanese Official Development Assistance. It is
operated by the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA), a government-owned and
controlled corporation under the Department of Transportation and
Communications (DOTC) under an Official development assistance scheme.
The reason for delay is contributed significantly to ineffective planning and
decision-making, which reflected through cost escalation of the project.
The procurement was termed as not being transparent and straightforward
Depreciation of Japanese currency went against the project, resulting in
delays
There was no operational strategy and the operations were also not planned
in advance. To add to this, there was no new organization set up for
operations and maintenance.
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Table 12-1: Broad Perspective on Suburban/ Commuter Rail System Implementation, Operation and Maintenance – Case Countries/ Cities
Japan/Tokyo France/ Paris Germany/ Berlin Russia/ Moscow UK/ London USA/ New York Brazil/ Sao Paulo Hong Kong
Name of Metropolitan Region/ Area Tokyo Metropolitan Region Île-de-France Berlin-Brandenburg Metropolitan Region
Moscow Metropolitan Area
Greater London New York Metropolitan Area
São Paulo Metropolitan Region
Hong Kong
Population of the metropolitan region (million) 37.9 (2014) 12.0 (2012) 5.9 (2013) 15.0 (2012) 8.3 (2012) 20.1 (2014) 20.9 (2014) 7.2 (2013)
Area (sqkm) 4,000 14,500 30,370 2,500 1,572 17,405 8,051 1,104
GDP (in 2012) (Amount in US Billions of Dollars) Source : World Bank
5,960 2,613 3,400 2014.78 2435.18 15684.81 2252.67 2632.60
GDP Per Capita of the Country (In 2012) (Amount in US Dollars), ( Source: World Bank)
46,720 39,772 41,514 14,037 38,514 49,965 11,340 36,796
GDP of City ( Amount in US Billions of Dollars)
(For Metropolitan Area) (Source: Wikipedia and Official website of City’s website)
1,479 (2008) 723(2008) 117 ( 2009) 225 (2009) 731.2 ( 2012) 1406 (2008) 388 (2008) 2,633
Gauge used for Suburban/ Commuter Rail - - 1,450 mm 1,524 mm - - 1,600 mm (Irish auge) 1,435 mm
Suburban/ Commuter Rail market share (considering motorised modes only)
39.5% 7.2% - - 3.7% 0.7% 15% -
Suburban/ Commuter rail Fare system Distance Based Fare Zone Based Fare Zone Based Fare Zone Based Fare Zone Based Fare Distance Based Fare Distance Based Fare Distance Based Fare
Share with Inter-city/ freight lines No Little - - Little Little Little Little
Capital subsidy No 100% 100% - 100% 100% 100% 100%
Operating subsidy No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Whether the suburban rail system is owned
and operated by the National Railway, the
Metropolitan Government, a “partnership”
between them, or a private company.
If owned and operated by the National
Railway, is this done by a separate “Suburban
Rail Operator” as envisaged by IR.
Commuter / suburban rail is operated by private entities (EJRC and others)
Capital and operating funding, setting service levels and fare structure
established by STIF
The RER (Réseau Express Régional) system comprises five lines that service the immediate suburbs of Paris, though some lines extend further out. They are composed by letter: A, B, C, D, & E. The RATP operates Lines A & B jointly with the SNCF (Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français), the French National Railway Company, while LinesC, D, & E are solely operated by the SNCF.
Suburban network is known as the Transilien, operated solely by the SNCF structure is
S-Bahn Berlin GmbH, a 100% subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn the national railway organisation operates commuter lines. Though Deutsche Bahn is a private company, the government of Germany holds majority of share capital and therefore Deutsche Bahn can still be called a state-owned company.
Moscow Railway, a subsidiary of Russian Railways owns and operates commuter rail lines
Moscow Railway is one of the 19 regional railway bureaus of Russian Railways
Operated as concessions contracted by Cental government to a number of private rail firms (c2c, Chiltern Railways, First Capital Connect, Gatwick Express, Greater Anglia, Heathrow Connect, Heathrow Express, London Mainland, London Overground Rail Operations, South West Trains, Southeastern, Southern and Stansted Express.)
The Central Government has retained ownership and is essentially responsible for the overall railway infrastructure and grants accessibility to the operating consesstions The Greater London Authority also operates a number of “Overland” rail lines
The Metro-North Commuter Railroad (reporting mark MNCR), trading as MTA Metro-North Railroad or Metro-North, Long Island Rail Road and Staten Island Railway are the commuter rail lines owned and operated by the Metropolitan Transport Authority (MTA), an authority of New York State
Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos (CPTM) (English: São Paulo Metropolitan Train Company) is a commuter rail company owned by the São Paulo State Secretariat for Metropolitan Transports (of the Sao Paulo state).
Mass Transit Railway Corporation (MTRC) (sole shareholder was the Hong Kong Government) operates commuter rail network connecting the north eastern and north- western new Territories with the rest of Hong Kong. Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC)
The reasons given and the benefits claimed for the ownership and operations arrangements in place, and the steps and elapsed time required to establish this arrangement
Japan has adopted implementation of commuter lines through privatization since 1930s in which rail development has been linked to township development and commercial development in and around stations.
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Japan/Tokyo France/ Paris Germany/ Berlin Russia/ Moscow UK/ London USA/ New York Brazil/ Sao Paulo Hong Kong
Whether the suburban rail system is operated directly by a the National Railway, or the Metropolitan Government, or by a contractor under terms and conditions specified by the National Railway (or Rail Regulator) and/or the Metropolitan Government
Commuter/ Suburban rail infrastructure is owned by MLIT/ TMG and operated by private entities
SNCF Transilien is a tradebrand of SNCF. It is the body responsible for Paris urban (with RATP, Autonomous Operator of Parisian Transports) and suburban transport system.
S-Bahn Berlin GmbH operates commuter lines under terms and conditions specified by Deutsche Bahn and BVG
Moscow Railway, a subsidiary of Russian Railways operates commuter rail lines
Operated by number of private rail firms
MTA operates the suburban/ commuter rail services
CPTM under the terms and conditions by the São Paulo State Secretariat for Metropolitan Transports
MTRC under the terms and conditions by the Hong Kong government
The political and institutional structure of the Metropolitan Government and the Metropolitan Transport Agency– in particular whether it is
directly elected body covering the whole of the metropolitan area formed by a group of individual local authorities within the metropolitan area specifically for the purpose of strategic planning and delivery of transport services, (and strategic land use planning also) and lead by an elected head or a Board
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG), is a regional government
The Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly is the fundamental decision-making body of Tokyo Metropolis. Governor and 127 members are directly elected by the citizens, and represent the Metropolis of Tokyo
The Syndicat des transports d'Île-de-France (STIF) is the autorité organisatrice de transports (transport organisation authority) that controls the Paris public transport network and coordinates the different transport companies operating in Île-de-France, mainly the RATP, the SNCF and Optile.
Greater London Authority (GLA), a regional government headed by a Mayor and has 25 politicians, all directly elected.
MTA is governed by a 17-member Board. Members are nominated by the Governor, with four recommended by New York City's mayor and one each by the county executives of Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Dutchess, Orange, Rockland, and Putnam counties. All Board members are confirmed by the New York State Senate.
Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China (PRC)
Who is responsible for creating the Vision for the development of the suburban rail system in a given city, and the strategic planning for the suburban system
Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation (TMBT) of TMG
STIF BVG TfL MTA São Paulo State Secretariat for Metropolitan Transports
Hong Kong government
Who provides the finance for Capital Expenditure, and whether this is provided through a regular budgeting process, or ad hoc on a “project by project” basis.
National and Local Governments
Ad hoc on a “project by project”
Federal and state governments
Ad hoc on a “project by project”
Federal government
Ad hoc on a “project by project”
Federal government
Ad hoc on a “project by project”
MTA/ Federal government
Ad hoc on a “project by project”
São Paulo State Secretariat for Metropolitan Transports
Ad hoc on a “project by project”
Hong Kong government
Who provides the finance for operating expenditure (or subsidies) and the overall terms and conditions of any service supply contract with an operator
MLIT STIF Deutsche Bahn and BVG 17% of operating expenses are provided by the Moscow Railway and the remaining 83% subsidized by regional governments
Operating expenses are not subsidized
MTA Hong Kong government
Whether decisions on strategic service planning, service expansion and service standards are made by the Metropolitan Government (or Metropolitan Transport Agency), also responsible for other aspects of transport and urban development within the metropolitan area, or by the National Railway or Suburban Rail Operator.
TMG STIF has real autonomy and is not dependent on the French Government. STIF is responsible for providing integrated and efficient transport services throughout the region to all Parisians. STIF implements the decisions made by the authorities during the Board of Directors’ meetings. These decisions can be of a structural nature (new infrastructures, etc.), concern innovation of the existing infrastructure (new services, etc.),
BVG Moscow Railway/ Russian Railway
Greater London Authority (GLA) MTA Hong Kong government
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Japan/Tokyo France/ Paris Germany/ Berlin Russia/ Moscow UK/ London USA/ New York Brazil/ Sao Paulo Hong Kong
concern quality issues (quality of service, improving supply, etc.), or economic and social issues (prices, travel cards, etc.). STIF’s decisions are then implemented by the RATP, SNCF and OPTILE (private bus network) transport operators.
Who makes decisions on fares policy TMG STIF BVG Moscow Railway/ Russian Railway
Transport for London (TfL) MTA State and City governments
Hong Kong government
In case the suburban system is not operated as part of the National Railway, the approach used to ensure the continuing updating of institutional and staff skills and knowledge particularly in rail operations.
EJRC, one of the seven Japan Railway Group companies ensures continuing up-dation of staff skills in rail operations
What incentivize are given to the entity to improve its financial performance.
Operations by private entities through revenues from fare as well as commercial development of stations.
What are other activities of the entity, if any, that cross subsidize its railway operation. How effective is the institutional arrangement in developing and operating non-rail business.
Commercial development of stations
Real estate development in the vicinity of the stations
Transit Oriented Development (TOD) initiates
Real estate development along railway routes
Note: Detailed documentation on the international case studies is presented in Annexure 12-1
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13. Thematic Approach in evolving Suburban Rail
Institutional Options
A number of aspects have been taken into account while evolving the options for
the suburban rail institutional setup.
13.1 Considerations
For arriving at the most suitable institutional arrangement for the suburban rail
systems in Indian cities, a number of options were evolved with the following
considerations:
Should be need based and meet the expectations of the people;
Following the best practices elsewhere in the world;
Keeping in mind the current arrangement, so as not to deviate too much
from it; and
Ease of implementation.
All these considerations may not be possible for inclusion in each of the evolved
options. Hence, some of the options are based on only one consideration while
others have more than one. An approach of DMRC for urban transport is stated
in Annexure 13-1.
13.2 Insights to Government of India/ IR Perspective
The various reports and documents prepared for the Indian Railways, including
the Vision 2020, White Paper (2009) and the Working Group Report for 12th
Five
Year Plan reflect the perspective of the IR on suburban railway system. With
respect to the suburban rail system, the focus is on its expansion, as it is seen as
the mode of transport which has the capacity to ‘eliminate’ the ‘shortage’ and
meet the future travel demand:
Partnership with the state and city authorities need to be established to
effectively manage a suburban rail service; this partnership needs to be
honored even while sharing the costs and the losses
Segregating the suburban operation by creating separate administrative
units; the suburban rail system should form a separate profit center
Relatively more financial and executive autonomy given to the zonal and
divisional level
Private sector to be encouraged to participate
The railways have substantial land which should be commercially utilized for
generating additional revenue for railways or even for attracting the private
sector
The policy making body should be different from the project executing body
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Given that the Railways have substantial expertise in executing metro
projects, a separate Indian Railway Metro Development Authority to be
formed for executing the metro, Light Rail Transit and Mono-rail projects
13.3 UMTA- Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority
Urban transport comprises various modes of transport, which are governed by
different acts and regulations. Such a fragmented system of planning and
implementation of urban transport only makes the functioning of urban
transport systems more complex and inefficient. This calls for a very close
coordination among those who provide different urban services. Perceiving the
problems being faced by various cities, the National Urban Transport Policy
(NUTP) recommended setting up of a Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority
(UMTA) in all million plus cities to facilitate better coordination in planning and
implementation of urban transport systems. The authority is not expected to
operate any transport facility, but only function as a coordinator for various
operators.
Functions
UMTA is expected to perform regulatory functions. It plays an important role in
preparing vision for improved mobility and ensuring that the required
investments take place.
Policy Functions: Formulation of policies, Strategies and financing for city
Urban Transport System,
Regulatory Functions: Ensure coordination among various Urban Transport
Services.
Integrated and holistic planning: Comprehensive Integrated transport
planning and implementation of all components.
As stated in 12th Five Year Plan, “All the million plus metropolitan areas should
set up an UMTA to develop and implement city level transportation plans. These
must be integrated with spatial and land use plans of cities.”
Structure
UMTA should be headed by the head of the city government and should have
heads of / representatives from all the organizations involved in the transport
planning and delivery, and contributing to its decision making, like:
City/ regional development authority or State Town and Country Planning
Organization
City or regional level Public transport providers - public transport
undertaking, state transport corporation, metro rail corporation, suburban
railways, etc.
IPT associations
State Transport Department
Traffic police
Pollution Control Board
PWD
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State Urban Development department
Sectoral experts
NGO’s
Other agencies dealing with housing, industries, commercial activities, etc.
13.4 Whether Corporation or Authority
An authority is any entity, which is incorporated through an Act while the
formation of a corporation is done under a Companies Act.
13.5 Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV)
Special purpose vehicle/SPV is a legal entity15
created to fulfil narrow, specific or
temporary objectives. SPVs are typically used by companies to isolate the firm
from financial risk. SPVs are also commonly used in complex financings to
separate different layers of equity infusion. In addition, they are commonly used
to own a single asset and associated permits and contract rights16
, to allow for
easier transfer of that asset.
It envisages participation of the stakeholders and beneficiaries besides national
level infrastructure funding institutions in the development and creation of
infrastructure through appropriate concessions. Financial participation can be
through equity participation in the SPV. An SPV can be a joint venture with
Railways as majority/minority partner, or a pure private company. Revenue from
operations is generated by SPV through revenue apportionment. Railway land,
as available, required for the project is made available on lease/license. Tariff
freedom as per provision of Railways’ Act, 1989 Commercial utilization of railway
land, commercial publicity rights as permissible under the law and public policy is
permitted with profit sharing. Initial project development is done by Indian
railways to establish project cost, land acquisition, other project component
requirements, and project viability. Land acquisition is done by the Indian
railways for partnership projects. Project construction is decided by the SPV. .
13.6 Financing Related Aspects
The implementing agency needs to be financially independent and self
sustained, so as to give them autonomy in taking decisions and thus making the
project planning more beneficial and implementing process more efficient. For
this the balance sheet of the agency needs to be made strong through transfer of
assets and/or through enabling revenue earning/sharing mechanism from the
ongoing projects. With this, more avenues of raising funds for the project will be
open – like borrowing from the domestic banks, multilateral funding agencies or
the raising resources from open market.
15 usually a limited company of some type or, sometimes, a limited partnership 16 such as an apartment building or a power plant
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14. Suburban Rail Institutional Strengthening -
Options and Evaluation for Suburban Rail
Development Organisations (SRDO)
14.1 Initial Options
The above stated considerations and aspects led to evolving the following
progressive strategic options for the suburban rail institutional strengthening:
Option 1: Status Quo or Business
as Usual Case for
particular suburban
system
Option 2: The current MRVC Model
IR in partnership with
State Agencies)
Option 3: An enhanced MRVC
Model
Option 4: As Option 3 but with
exclusive suburban rail
organization – New
Zonal Railway
Option 5: As Option 4 but Including
All Rail Based Regional
Public Transport
Option 6: As Option 5 but including
All Higher Order
Regional Transit (Including Buses) and possibly the major regional
roads)
It should be noted that with Options 5 and 6 the delivery of suburban rail services
would likely be under the mandate of Urban Transport Authority/ Regional
Multimodal Transport Authority/ Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority17
.
Further for easy understanding, the following terminology has been used:
System development: Suburban Rail Development Corporation (SRDC)/
Suburban Rail development Authority (SRDA) in option 4, Rail
Development Corporation (RDC)/ Rail Development Authority (RDA) in
Option 5 as metro/ monorail systems have been added in addition to
suburban system. Further, in Option 6, Transit development
Corporation (TDC)/ Transit development Authority (TDA) have been
used as bus system also has been included.
17
Urban Transport Authority or Regional Multimodal Transport Authority or Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority means same throughout the document.
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Operation: Suburban Rail Operator (SRO) in Option 4, Rail Operator (RO)
in option 5 and Transit Operator (TO) in Option 6.
14.1.1 Option 1: Status Quo or Business as Usual Case
No organisational changes are proposed in this option which means it is
“Business as usual” option. However, improvement in efficiency will be the
inherent part of the existing system.
14.1.2 Option 2: Current MRVC Model (Partnership with State Agencies)
Success story of MRVC in MMR in delivering the capacity enhancements to the
suburban rail system is good example of partnership between IR and the state
government for emulating similar institutional model in other major cities/
regions where the suburban rail operations are high like Kolkata, Chennai, etc. in
the near future, and over a period of time in other places like Delhi, Bangalore,
etc.
14.1.3 Option 3: Enhanced MRVC Model
The strategies followed in major cities/ metropolitan areas around the world for
mass transportation systems indicates that, good coordination between local,
regional and national governments in planning as well as raising the resources is
vital for sustainable mass transport systems. Keeping in mind the strategies
followed in those cities, and the existing institutional and organisational
structures at local, regional/ state and national level, Enhanced MRVC model has
been evolved as an option, which would include at least the following steps that
would be subject to the approval of all funding partners:
n) Determine participating Central Government Partners - IR, Ministry of
Urban Development (MOUD), Ministry of Finance and others;
o) Determine participating State Agency Partners;
p) Prepare new form of a MRVC Incorporation Agreement;
q) Establishing a Suburban Rail System Service Area (SRSSA);
r) Establishing the principle of setting rail fare structures within SRSSA
independent of other suburban rail systems in India;
s) Confirm SRSSA fares to be a revenue source to MRVC;
t) MRVC to prepare and obtain approvals of Annual and 5 Year Business
Plans and Operating Budgets, including financial requirements of
partners, and defining clear roles and responsibilities of partners;
u) MRVC to prepare and obtain approval of 5, 10 and 20 year Business Plans
(short, medium and long term) and Budgets for Capital Projects to
maintain the suburban rail system; and
v) Establish the principal of optimizing the transit supportive development
of surplus non-operating railway lands within the SRSSA for
development by the private sector including agreement that resulting
funds be allocated to implement the SRSSA capital program.
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It is a fact that for quite some time to come, it will not be possible to completely
segregate the suburban rail system from other railway operations, particularly
longer distance passenger trains. Consequently under this arrangement, the
responsibility of train control must be maintained by IR. The allocation of rail
capacity for corridor service needs will need to be carefully managed based on
previously agreed principles and practices between the partners.
14.1.4 Option 4: As Option 3 but with exclusive suburban rail organisation –New Zonal
Railway
In this option, an Option 3 which is described above with exclusive suburban rail
organisation along with new zonal railway has been proposed. In this option, an
interim option of Suburban Rail Development Corporation (SRDC)18
shall be
created and under long term it will be transformed to Suburban Rail
Development Authority (SRDA). A new operator, Suburban Rail Operator (SRO),
which would be jointly owned by SRDC/SRDA and IR, would operate suburban
rail services under contract against service performance targets agreed with
SRDC/SRDA.
14.1.5 Option 5: As Option 4 but Including all Rail Based Regional Public Transport
Similar to the Option 4 with the SRDC/ SRDA taking additional responsibility of
development and operation of other guided transport systems (metro, monorail,
etc.) that are developed/ being developed in the city/ region. Rail Operator (RO)
would operate suburban rail service and metro/ monorail systems under contract
against service performance targets agreed with RDC/RDA.
14.1.6 Option 6: As Option 5 but Including all Higher Order Regional Transit (Including
Buses)
In addition to Option 5, the SRDC/ SRDA would take the additional responsibility
of development and operation of buses also that are developed/ being
developed in the city/ region. Transit Operator (TO) would operate suburban rail
service, metro/ monorail systems and bus system under contract against service
performance targets agreed with Transit Development Corporation/ Transit
Development Authority (TDC/TDA).
Each of the above stated options is built on the previous option, starting from
Status Quo, with the last one being the most desirable institutional set-up, which
suggests a structure which includes all the modes of public transport, including
even the buses. The level of complexity in achieving the desired resource
mobilisation and institutional arrangement is given in Figure 14-1. Hence to
arrive at the optimal institutional arrangement, it is required to undertake a very
rigorous approach, which, besides incorporating an analytical approach, should
also take the views and suggestions of the stakeholders into consideration.
18
SRDC in case of MMR already exists as Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation and further institutional changes are required to translate MRVC in to Suburban Rail Development Authority (SRDA).
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Figure 14-1: Evolution of Resource Mobilisation and Institutional Arrangements
14.2 Evaluation of Options for Further Consideration and Discussions
In order to assess the robustness of each of the options towards contributing to
operational efficiency of the system, an evaluation has been undertaken, with
the following evaluation criteria:
a) Operational responsibility;
b) Ownership and maintenance of assets;
c) Service planning;
d) Fare and operating subsidies;
e) Business planning;
f) Strategic planning for system planning and capital investment;
g) Partnership arrangement with state authorities;
h) Property development management;
i) Public Private Partnership arrangements;
j) Legal status;
k) Institutional changes required in the Ministry of Railways; and
l) Ease of Implementation
The process of evaluation includes extensive series of discussions with railway
management, MRVC and other stakeholders. Further to this, the experiences of
existing systems overseas and in India have also been referred to. The evaluation
matrix is given at Table 14-1. The prioritised options19
, as emerged, are given
below:
1. Option 4: As Option 3 but with exclusive suburban rail organization (New
Zonal Railway) and Creation of SRDA and SRO
2. Option 5: As Option 4 but Including All Rail Based Regional Public Transport
3. Option 6: As Option 5 but including All Higher Order Regional Transit
(Including Buses)
19 Evaluation of options is presented in Annexure 14-1
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4. Option 3: Enhanced MRVC Model
5. Option 2: Current MRVC Model (Partnership with State Agencies)
6. Option 1: Status Quo or Business as Usual Case
Clearly the evaluation indicates that, the options 1 and 2 have scored lowest. The
requirement of the day, hence, is to provide much more than what is there at
present.
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Table 14-1: Alternative Options, Evaluation Criteria and Initial Assessment
Option/ Criteria
Operational Stability and
Operating Efficiency
Ownership and Maintenance of
Assets Service Planning
Fare and Operating Subsidies
Business Planning Strategic Planning for System Expansion and
Capital Investment
Partnership Arrangements with
State Authorities (public-Public)
Property Development Management
Public Private Partnership
Arrangements Legal Status
Institutional Changes Required in Ministry of
Railways
Ease of Implementation
Option 1 Status Quo or Business as Usual Case
No change (Existing Zonal Railways would continue in taking care of the operational responsibility of suburban operations (No complexity for IR)
No change (IR would continue to own and maintain the assets)
No change (IR would do)
Difficult to absorb the fare and operating subsidies
Difficult task Difficult with existing institutional setup at zonal Railways
Difficult with existing institutional setup at zonal Railways
Difficult with existing institutional setup at zonal Railways
Difficult with existing institutional setup at zonal Railways
No change No change No difficulty
Option 2 Current MRVC Model (Partnership with State Agencies)
Same as above Same as above Same as above Difficult to absorb the fare and operating subsidies
Possible Possible (similar to conceiving MUTP like projects programme)
Possible similar to MRVC (partnership between IR and Government of Maharashtra)
Difficult with existing institutional setup at zonal Railways
Difficult with existing institutional setup at zonal Railways
No legal hurdles for creation of Rail Development Corporation (RDC) which would be similar to MRVC
No change No difficulty
Option 3 Enhanced MRVC Model
Same as above Same as above Same as above Difficult to absorb the fare and operating subsidies
Establishing the principle of setting rail fare structures within SRSSA independent of other suburban rail systems in India – A challenging political decision.
The fare and operating subsidies may be shared by the stakeholders.
Possible Difficult with existing institutional setup at zonal Railways
Difficult with existing institutional setup at zonal Railways
Difficult with existing institutional setup at zonal Railways
Difficult with existing institutional setup at zonal Railways
Partnering IR with other central government organisations/ departments may need some legal amendments
Partnering with other central government organisations/ departments may warrant for capacity building and institutional changes in the Railway Board
Low difficulty
Option 4 As Option 3 but with exclusive suburban rail organization (New Zonal Railway) and Creation of SRDC/ SRDA and SRO
SRO (Less complexity for IR). A new operator, which would be wholly or jointly owned by one or more of SRDC/SRDA, IR or State Government, would operate suburban rail services under contract against service performance targets agreed with SRDC/SRDA.
The ownership of the entire suburban rail infrastructure, which is currently vested in the Railways, is to transferred to SRDA.
SRDC/ SRDA SRDC/ SRDA being jointly owned, the fare and operating subsidies may be shared by the stakeholders
As SRDC/ SRDA would adequate institutional capacity with a more focus on suburban rail infrastructure and operations, will be responsible for preparing Business Plan for suburban rail infrastructure and operations
Possible (similar to conceiving MUTP like projects programme)
Possible similar to MRVC (partnership between IR and Government of Maharashtra)
Difficult with existing institutional setup at zonal Railways
Difficult with existing institutional setup at zonal Railways
No legal hurdles for creating new zonal railways for suburban operations in the major metropolitan areas
No legal hurdles for creating RDC/ SRA
Creation of new zonal railways for suburban operations in the major metropolitan areas and further creation of SRDC under interim option, SRDA under long term option warrant for capacity building and institutional changes in the Railway Board
Creation of SRO for new zonal railways created for suburban rail operations warrant for capacity building and institutional changes in the Railway Board
Medium difficulty
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Option/ Criteria
Operational Stability and
Operating Efficiency
Ownership and Maintenance of
Assets Service Planning
Fare and Operating Subsidies
Business Planning Strategic Planning for System Expansion and
Capital Investment
Partnership Arrangements with
State Authorities (public-Public)
Property Development Management
Public Private Partnership
Arrangements Legal Status
Institutional Changes Required in Ministry of
Railways
Ease of Implementation
Option 5 As Option 4 but Including All Rail Based Regional Public Transport
SRO translated to RO i.e. Rail Operator (More complexity for IR)
IR need to share the suburban rail infrastructure with other stakeholders like State Governments/ MoUD and State Governments/ MoUD need to share the metro/ monorail infrastructure with IR
RDC/ RDA (Rail Development Corporation/ Rail Development Authority)
Same as Option 4 RDC/ RDA (Rail Development Corporation/ Rail Development Authority)
Same as Option 2
RDC/ RDA in coordination with the City/ Regional authorities and Urban Development Department of the State Governments
RDC/ RDA/RO will have partnership arrangements with State Governments
Relatively Easy as RDC/ RDA/ RO will have partnership arrangements with State Governments
Relatively Easy as RDC/ RDA will have adequate institutional arrangement to go for PPP arrangements
Joint ownership and management of RO by IR with State Governments require amendments to the Acts.
Same as option 4
Development and operation of additional guided transport systems i.e. metro/ monorail systems in the newly created zonal railways would invite further more capacity and institutional changes in the Railway Board
High difficulty
Option 6 As Option 5 but including All Higher Order Regional Transit (Including Buses)
RO translates PTO i.e. Public Transport Operator (More complexity for IR)
IR need to share the suburban rail infrastructure with other stakeholders like State Governments/ MoUD and State Governments/ MoUD need to share the metro/ monorail infrastructure with IR
TDC/ TDA (Transit Development Corporation/ Transit Development Authority)
Same as Option 4 TDC/ TDA (Transit Development Corporation/ Transit Development Authority)
Same as Option 2
TDC/ TDA in coordination with the City/ Regional authorities and Urban Development Department of the State Governments
TDC/TDA/TO will have partnership arrangements with State Governments
Relatively Easy as TDC/ TDA/TO will have partnership arrangements with State Governments
Relatively Easy as TDC/ TDA will have adequate institutional arrangement to go for PPP arrangements
Joint ownership and management of TO by IR with State Governments require amendments to the Acts.
Same as option 4
Development and operation of additional guided transport systems i.e. metro/ monorail systems and bus system in the newly created zonal railways would invite further more capacity and institutional changes in the Railway Board
Very High Difficult
Note: In option 4, the Suburban Rail Development Corporation/ Suburban Development Authority would change to Rail Development Corporation/ Rail Development Authority in Option 5 as metro/ mono systems are added in Option 5 and further the same would
change to Transit Development Corporation/ Transit Development Authority in Option 6 as road based bus system is also added. Similarly, operations point of view, Suburban Rail Operator would change to Rail Operator in Option 5 and Transit Operator in Option 6.
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14.3 Principal Stakeholders View on evolving Suburban Rail
Institutional Options
14.3.1 Indian Railway
The senior officers of the Indian Railways (IR) feel that the present functions and
operations of the IR are more geared and focussed towards long distance travel.
Hence, most of their planning is focussed in that direction. Due to this, even
though they are undertaking the operation of the suburban rail systems, they are
of the view that since it forms a very important mode of transport in most of the
big cities, especially for the economically not so well-off population, much more
should be done. They further feel that there should be a strategy for
strengthening the present institutional arrangement of the implementing
agencies. Towards this, they are welcoming suggestions and recommendations,
even if it requires some changes to be made to the present set-up of the IR.
14.3.2 Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA)
There is no need to have a new organization for the suburban rail system.
With some improvements in the existing MRVC institutional structure, it can
continue to function as a suburban rail organization in MMR;
There is a need for more clarity on sources of funding for the suburban rail
operations; and
Possibility of privatization of suburban infrastructure development and
operations should be explored, as that would significantly take away the
financial burden off the government shoulder.
14.3.3 Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation Ltd (MRVC)
a) It was emphasised that more focus should be given on
improvements/changes that can be made in a relatively short period of time
(5 to 10 years) to expedite the delivery of suburban rail projects in order to
provide immediate benefits to passengers. They considered only minor
changes to the way MRVC is currently functioning to be the need at this time.
b) The following areas were identified for attention:
- A single point clearing/decision body to deal with multiple jurisdictional
issues and implementation delays
- Securing cleared rights of way
- Relocating existing utilities.
- Expediting approvals and utilisation of funds, since most government
agencies significantly underspend the approved budgets due to bureaucratic
gridlock and inertia.
c) It was generally agreed that Mumbai Suburban Railway (MSR) system is more
akin to a Metro rather than conventional suburban railway. But there was no
consensus on ”MSR should be planned like a Metro”. One of the major
difference between the MSR and Metros, is the longer distance between
stations in the former, and the resulting very large station catchment areas
and excessive passenger station access times and costs. It was understood
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that the proposed Metro lines would help to address this problem and offload
the MSR.
d) It was felt that integrated operational management of the MSR and the
Metro was an attainable objective and that perhaps independent operations
with connectivity opportunities now being planned, was the most pragmatic
approach.
e) On the institutional arrangement, MRVC contemplates following forms of
organisational set-up20
:
- Business as Usual
- Separate Railway Zone for Mumbai Suburban Rail System
- Joint SPV between MoR and GoM for entire Mumbai Suburban Railway
System including mandate for fare fixation, commercial development,
etc.
- Joint SPV responsible for providing infrastructure, station development,
commercial development, revenue collection, fare fixation, etc. while
Railway continues to operate and maintain the system on predefined
track access charges.
14.3.4 City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO)
a) CIDCO suggested bringing all public transport under single organisation i.e. suburban rail system, metro, monorail and bus systems.
b) It was felt that the existing institutional arrangement and coordination mechanism for planning and implementation of suburban rail projects in MMR is lengthy and time consuming.
14.3.5 Central Railway (CR)
CR is of the opinion that bringing about institutional changes may take relatively
more time as it involves bringing together a number of organisations,
departments, unions, etc.
14.3.6 Western Railway (WR)
a) WR stressed the need for providing door-to-door services through coordinated efforts of various stakeholders responsible for transport infrastructure in MMR; and
c) It also felt that having a separate organisation for planning, operation and maintenance of suburban railway system in MMR may lead to some problems with the centre.
14.3.7 Urban Development Department, Government of Maharashtra
a) The fiscal responsibility of providing the Mumbai Suburban Railway system should be maintained by IR;
b) MRVC should play an expanded role including taking over of the suburban rail assets of IR and also suburban railway staff, although there is uncertainty associated with the implications of doing this;
20 The views are of MRVC as expressed in one of the meetings.
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c) Effort should be made to reduce the staffing needs while bringing about the institutional change;
d) Implementing some form of development charge mechanism and establishing a “ring fenced” infrastructure fund covering transport and other infrastructure; and
e) Favoured an approach that allowed setting up of differential regional tariff structure.
14.4 Views Expressed in Workshops
Two workshops are organized in 2014, one in Mumbai (12th
March 2014) and
another in Delhi (31st
October, 2014) to discuss and debate on the issues/
problems, institutional changes required, possible options, etc. The
presentations made during the workshops in Mumbai and Delhi are presented in
Annexure 14-2 and Annexure 14-3 respectively. Brief on the views expressed by
various stakeholders are presented in the following sections.
14.4.1 Workshop held in Mumbai
a) Existing transportation systems and major stakeholders responsible for
planning, implementation, operation & maintenance in MMR is very complex
and there is a need for integration of regional transport functions.
Considering various public transport modes (bus, suburban, metro, monorail)
and complexity involved in planning, implementation, operation &
maintenance of these systems, it would remain concrete block in bringing all
these modes under one single umbrella or four umbrellas and different
people had different views on that;
b) It was felt that fares should act as a means of financing urban transport. Apart
from this, direct user fee and land value gains were also mentioned as
important source of funding urban transport;
c) It is essential to involve state and local authorities in the institution that is
responsible for urban transport;
d) On the alternative institutional options, it was felt that the progress should be
step by step from where MRVC is presently. Idea of separate zone was also
put forward;
e) Extensive discussion was held on functioning of UMTA. So far, UMTAs in
urban cities have been created by amendments and are not effective.
Priorities should be given to transportation projects that are binding on
various agencies. And of these, if UMTA is given specific mandates, probably
it would help.
14.4.2 Workshop held in Delhi
a) Urban Transport in India needs greater attention and institutional strategies
should be in place, to meet long term perspective. It's implementation can be
in an interim to long term way with a time bound plan;
b) It is felt that existing rail system in urban areas of India should be used most
optimally from various considerations including the energy savings
perspective, apart from Mobility considerations and therefore Suburban Rail
System should be planned, developed and significantly encouraged with
time;
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c) In formulating preferred urban transport institutional strategies for a complex
urban region like Mumbai, there was a consensus that, the strategies cannot
be divorced from the resource mobilisation issues;
d) It is felt that Institutional Strategy be evolved considering the Funding21
i.e.
Resource Mobilisation and partnership of states and local governments and
cannot be devoid of these. Further, it is strongly felt that institutional strategy
and development of the same should be on the principles of Function22
driving the Form23
;
e) Practicality to attempt to plan, fund and operate a multi-modal public
transport system with compatible fare tariffs- based on the service levels
being provided was discussed and debated. The outcome was that, the fare
structure of public transport modes in particular city/ region should be based
on input costs, inflation, etc. and the fares could be different for different
cities/ regions;
f) Most large metropolitan regions rely on many public and private transport
modes to meet the travel needs of its citizens and business activities. People
often use multiple modes to make a single trip. This has led to the progressive
establishment of regional transport agencies, to coordinate the planning,
funding, implementation and operations of all major modes of urban
transport. The need for emulating the similar institutional changes was felt
inevitable for the large metropolitan regions in India;
g) Mobilization of resources to fund capital, operating and state of good repair
costs is a major issue for almost all regional transport agencies across the
world. In MMR, underinvestment in the suburban rail system is compounded
because of years of funding neglect. It was felt that, wide basket of resources
needed to achieve a sustainable, predictable and “ring fenced” Transport
Investment Fund. The sources other than normal fare box revenue like fare
surcharge, advertisement, land based revenue sources, loans from
international funding agencies like World Bank, JICA, etc., Foreign Direct
Investment (FDI) opportunities, etc.;
h) It is felt that there should single Umbrella Organisation to look after Urban
Transport, by setting up Regional Transport Authority, like other countries
have and further there should be a business-like approach to this whole issue
of Urban Transport, without foregoing social objectives of governments in
place;
i) Potential alternative roles for state governments on capacity enhancements,
operation and maintenance, funding, etc. of suburban rail systems were
discussed ranging from not taking any role at all to active participation.
Depending on the city/ region local circumstances, the beneficiary
stakeholders, etc. need was felt for joint efforts by Indian Railways, State
Government and Regional Development Authority and ULBs for
development and operation & maintenance related aspects of suburban rail
system;
21Funding in the context means which organization/ organizations shall provide funds for capital and O&M needs of suburban railway system. 22
Function in the context means clarity on which organization is responsible for providing suburban rail transport system as per the acts 23Form in the context means institutional option/ structure.
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j) Metros are being proposed for cities having the population more than 1.5
million. These metros are using the latest technology including air-
conditioned coaches. Discussed about planning and budgeting to upgrade
the suburban services /standards to meet the public aspirations for better
comfort/safety, even if this means increased fares. With respect to Mumbai
Suburban Rail system, meeting such requirements would reduce the capacity
and there is a need for further enhancing the capacity by way of latest
signalling system, additional corridors, etc. which would have capital
investment needs. MRVC has been suggested to initiate feasibility studies for
alternative ways of enhancing the capacity of the suburban railway system;
and
k) Given the current positioning and operations of Suburban Rail system, the
need is felt to evolve a time bound plan and importantly to have integrated
approach to this complex and challenging issue, given the complexities
involved in this effort. There should a partnership approach to this issue, by
involving the State, the local governments, the Ministry of Urban
Development and Ministry of Railways. In this context, it is also felt that one
should move with an Interim Solution to begin with to a Long Term solution,
as this is more sustainable and such provide relief and service community. All
these considerations may not be possible for inclusion in each of the evolved
options. Hence, some of the options are based on only one consideration
while others have more than one
14.5 Evolved Shared view on Suburban Rail Institutional
Strengthening and Options
Function should derive the form of the evolved institution for the suburban
rail system;
The suburban service to be separated from the Indian Railway;
The strategy should be geared towards strengthening the present
institutional arrangement, so that the implementation can be faster;
More clarity needed on the sources of funding for suburban rail operations;
All public transport, viz. suburban rail, metro, monorail an bus system,
should be brought under a single umbrella;
The new institutional arrangement should enable faster planning and
implementation of suburban projects in MMR; and
Wide basket of resources are needed to achieve a sustainable, predictable,
and ‘ring fenced’ Transport Investment Fund.
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Section 4: Recommendation
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15. Recommended Suburban Rail Institutional
Strategy
15.1 Regional/National level
15.1.1 Form, Governance and Institutional Arrangement
Function should be the main drivers for establishing the appropriate or preferred
form of governance and/or institutional arrangement in a look forward
assessment of options for various Regions/cities in the country. Based on this, it
is felt that the proposed regional governance arrangement should be
fundamentally underpinned by
an empowered Regional
Multimodal Transport Authority.
Hence the arrangement
suggested for the suburban rail
system is the creation of a
Regional Multi-modal Transport
Authority, which forms an
umbrella for the various
agencies which are responsible
for different modes of transport.
For the suggested option, there
will be a need to identify
participating state government
and Central Government Partners like IR, Ministry of Urban Development,
Ministry of Finance, etc. This will be followed by incorporation of a Suburban Rail
Development Corporation (SRDC) in the interim. However in the long run, as
already mentioned, the SRDC shall be transformed into Suburban Rail
Development Authority (SRDA). A new operator, Suburban Rail Operator (SRO),
which would be jointly owned by SRDC/SRDA and IR, would operate suburban
rail services under contract, against service performance targets agreed with
SRDC/SRDA.
In order to facilitate hassle free movement of the people across various modes of
public transport, three cities i.e. Greater London, Paris Region and New York
Region have created integrated modal governance which looks after all the
modes of public transport.
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In the process of integration of the functions of various agencies providing public
transport facilities, the resource generation for funding the projects, both
operation and capital, also tend to become consolidated. The aspect of ‘Growth
should Pay for Growth’, can be applied with ease thus increasing the possibility
of generating higher revenue through imposition of levies like development
charges, since they are a result of the development of the regions, which in turn
happens due to, among other factors, better accessibility. With one unified
implementing agency looking after all modes of public transport, such proceeds
need not get distributed among multiple agencies, thus making the basket of
funding bigger.
15.1.2 Major Roles and Functions of Regional Multimodal Transport
Authority
The roles and functions of the Multimodal Regional Transport Authority are
envisaged as follows:
Partners: A dynamic partnership between Centre, State and Local
Municipalities including Indian Railways, and all parties contributing towards
Multimodal Transport Funding;
Plan formation and prioritisation: Formulating integrated, comprehensive
multimodal plans and implementation priorities;
Fares: Formulating integrated public transit fare policies and charges for
public transit (including suburban rail) and other user charges of urban
transit (tolls etc.);
Service Levels: Establishing service levels to be provided including
frequency and duration of public transit, acceptable crowding levels and
safety standards;
Funding and Management: Establish a Financial Management Division to
oversee, monitor and manage a sustainable regional Multimodal Transport
Investment Fund to meet capital, operating and state of good repair costs,
while ensuring fund is “ring fenced and transparent” and reflects evolving
investment plans;
Procurement Processes: Oversee terms of tenders and contracts being used
by Modal Corporations/SPV’s to contract with public and private parties for
delivery of urban transport services, including an enhanced suburban rail
service operated by IR;
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Private sector participation: Seek opportunities and mechanisms for private
sector participation and other measures to maximize investment efficiencies
and leverage of Transport Fund revenues;
Roles and responsibilities of subsidiary model corporations: Establish roles,
administrative/institutional responsibilities of subsidiary modal
corporations/SPV’s namely;
o Regional Bus Corporation – Consolidation of all municipal bus operations
in the region;
o Regional Road Corporation – Responsible for a designated network of
higher order regional roads. All other public roads would remain under
jurisdiction of ULB’s;
o Regional Metro/Monorail Corporation – Responsible for all
metro/monorail projects and operations in the region; and
o Suburban Rail Corporation – Would assume responsibility of designated
physical and rolling stock of the fully separated suburban rail system in
the region including stations exclusively used for suburban rail.
15.1.3 Suburban Rail Development Corporation (SRDC)
Under the interim option, the development and up-gradation of suburban
railway infrastructure in major cities/ regions would be planned and undertaken
by SRDC, a newly created government company. The most feasible structure for
RDC would be that of a government owned Company incorporated under the
provisions of the Companies Act, 1956. It can be jointly owned by the Central and
State Governments. SRDC would be vested with special powers for project
approval, procurement and project management. The responsibilities of SRDC
would include:
a) Develop coordinated plans for the rail components to be included in the
planned overall transport infrastructure plans of the city/ region and other
planned investments in the city/ regional rail services and execute the
resulting infrastructure projects;
b) Integrate urban development plans for the city/ region with rail capacity and
proposed investments;
c) Mobilise financial resources to fund commercial land development and
suburban railway infrastructure projects;
d) Coordinate the improvements of track, drainage and removal of
encroachments and trespassers from the railway right-of-way and station
approaches;
e) Approve and execute specific projects for commercial development of
railway land and agree the appointment between GoI/ IR and state
government;
f) Agree with IR annual service performance targets for city’s/ region’s
suburban rail services and review performance against these targets;
g) Determine revisions to the passenger tariffs and surcharges for the
suburban rail services; and
h) Ensure development of the city’s/ region’s suburban EMU fleet and
establishment of a common fleet design and integrated fleet management.
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15.1.4 Suburban Rail Development Authority (SRDA)
Over time, SRDC would evolve into SRDA with the general objective of securing
the best possible suburban railway system. The ownership of the entire suburban
rail infrastructure, which is currently vested with the Indian Railways, is to be
transferred to SRDA. Apart from requiring the approval of the Railway Board,
this will almost certainly require modification to the existing internal rules and
regulations governing disposition of such property. The suburban rail services
are to be operated by SRO and to be supervised, controlled and monitored by
SRDA. This scenario is a departure from the Railway Act under which both
functions are vested exclusively in a Indian Railway administration. SRDA’s
responsibilities/functions would include:
a) Providing, maintaining and enhancing the infrastructure required for
suburban rail operations and providing improvements to the related
environment;
b) Keeping under review the suburban rail network and preparing plans for its
future expansion and development in line with trends in land-use planning
and consequent changes in commuting, residential and leisure activities;
c) Securing (through SRO) safe, adequate and efficient suburban rail services;
d) Preparing, maintaining and promoting a financial and business plan for the
operation of, and investment in city’s/ region’s suburban railways, including
projects which may not be directly concerned with railway infrastructure or
operation but which affect aspects of passenger service; and
e) Formulation of policies for the contracts involved in operation of suburban
trains, asset management, renewal and development of the railway
infrastructure.
15.1.5 Suburban Rail Operator (SRO)
A new operator, Suburban Rail Operator (SRO), which would be wholly or jointly
owned by one or more of SRDC/SRDA, IR or State Government, would operate
suburban rail services under contract against service performance targets agreed
with SRDC/SRDA. To prepare for the establishment of SRO, in any of the newly
created Suburban Zonal System, IR would need to:
a) Ensure a thorough dissemination of SRDA and SRO’s policy statements,
goals and relationships with GOI/IR;
b) Undertake organisational changes within the new suburban zonal system
established under interim option of SRDC to take account of the
establishment of SRDA and SRO, including the movement of staff to SRO
on deputation/ secondment; and
c) Establish change management protocols
SRO, as an operator, would be required to collaborate, as appropriate, with the
Planning Manager of SRDA, so as to provide professional and strategic input to
the SRDA financial and business plan. SRA would be responsible for
apportioning costs and recharging to GoI/ IR (as agreed) those costs relating to
non-suburban operations. Brief on proposed institutional structures for SRDC,
SRDA and SRO is presented in Annexure 15-1.
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15.2 Mumbai Specific - Institutional Arrangement
The transport needs and recommended institutional arrangements of the
Mumbai Metropolitan Region are described in this section of the report since the
current and future urban transport issues of the MMR are unique.
Recent data on the suburban rail system indicate that operating cost recovery
from fares has fallen to approaching only 50% 0f operating costs with subsidy
requirements reached to INR 1,110 crore during 2013-14 and likely reaching to
INR 1400 crores during 2014-15.
The Mumbai bus system (BEST), although being cross subsidized by electricity
charges, reported an operating loss of INR 776 crore in year 2014-15. Operating
losses of the first phase of the monorail system and Metro Line 1 are further
adding to economic difficulties.
When the capital requirements for both new transport projects and state of good
repair and upgrading of existing aging infrastructure is added to the investment
needs it is very clear that new institutional resource mobilization measures are
required to be put in place as early as possible. This was addressed in the
Comprehensive Transportation Study carried out by MMRDA during 2005-08 but
little progress has been made to date.
The GoI (MoUD) has initiated efforts to establish Unified Metropolitan Transport
Authorities (UMTA) and Urban Transport Funds (UTF) and recently proposed
processes and mechanisms to implement both UMTA’s and UTF’s on a statutory
basis which was a significant shortcoming of the original advisory and
coordinating intent of the UMTA. Draft UMTA Bill, 2014 is presented in
Annexure 15-2.
Since IR has many reservations on continuing funding deficits of suburban
railway operations, which they deem not part of their core responsibilities, they
have voiced the opinion that State governments should step forward to fill the
financial voids of suburban rail operations, since constitutionally; urban transport
is a State responsibility. MUTP I & II were seen as a step in this direction.
However this is a complicated issue since the operations and funding of the
passenger rail services of IR has addressed many transportation, social and
economic factors that vary widely across India. Providing a sound, transparent
and dependent source of funding for urban transport, which in Mumbai’s case
includes the suburban rail system, is a key element of any institutional
arrangement. Consequently, it was concluded that any resilient arrangement for
the suburban railway could only be put in place in conjunction with and in parallel
to setting up of a statutory empowered Urban Transport Authority (Figure 15-1)
and related Urban Transport Fund. This conclusion was driven by the inevitable
and perhaps large financial implications of downloading suburban rail services
responsibilities to the State.
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Figure 15-1: Regional Transport Authority
Figure 15-2 illustrates a possible structure to negotiate and define the respective
roles and undertakings of UMTA and IR in planning, funding and operating the
suburban rail system in the MMR. Potential sources of funding for Urban
Transport Fund (UTF) are presented in Figure 15-324
. The principle of “growth
should pay for growth is explicit in these funding sources. A key factor in this
negotiation would be the interim and ultimate ownership of existing railway
assets which will greatly influence the eventual institutional partnerships. This
could likely involve transitional arrangements as the various agencies
demonstrate their capability to effectively manage the responsibilities being
transferred.
24
Source: Ministry of Urban Development’s study on “Developing Operations Documents for Urban
Metropolitan Transport Authority (UMTA) and Urban Transport Fund (UTF) by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and Voyants Solutions
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Regional Suburban Rail Corporation
Enhanced UMTAInc. Financing Division
“Ring Fenced”Urban Transport
Fund
Negotiates Detailed
Arrangementswith IR
Examples of UTF Potential Sources
ProgressivelyEnhanced
MRVC Role
UMTA Composition• State Representatives• ULB representatives• Centre representatives
including IR• User representatives• Representatives of other
significant contributorsto UTF
• Establishes Participating Agency Partnership Agreements
• Prepares Business Plans• Defines Service Levels & Performance
Criteria by Modes• Establishes Modal Fare Tariffs • Secures Capital & Operating
Funding/Financing Commitments• Develops Multi-modal Expansion
Plans• Contracts Delivery of Modal Services
Through Subsidiary Agencies & Monitors Performance
Multi-modal Authority
Negotiate Incremental Prime Arrangements with Indian Railways on:• Ownership/use of suburban rail
assets• Tracks ,yards, shops,
rolling stock andancillary facilities
• ROW/Lands/Property• Stations
• General terms and conditionsof operating suburban trainservices on behalf ofUMTA including fiscalarrangements
UMTA Suburban Rail System
Figure 15-2: Regional Transport Authority, Urban Transport Fund and Regional Suburban Rail Corporation
Figure 15-3: UTF - Potential Sources of Funding
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Mumbai is a city with very high travel demand, being met by multimodal
transport system. Suburban rail, however, plays a very critical role. In the long
run, MMR also needs to target a MMR Multimodal Transport Authority, as the
umbrella agency, bringing all agencies under one roof. However, since this
option will take time for execution, in the interim it is proposed that an
Enhanced MRVC Model is set up. Evolution of institutional arrangements and
setting up of Dedicated Urban Transport Fund for Mumbai is presented in Figure
15-4.
Evolution of Institutional Arrangements &
Dedicated Urban Transport Fund
For Mumbai
Co
mp
lex
ity
Time
Option 1:
Current
MRVC Model
(Partnership
with State
Agencies)
Option 4: All Rail
Based Regional
Public Transport
Provided by Regional
Transport Authority
by contracts with
separate service
delivery companies:
• Suburban Rail
(trains operated by
IR)
• Metro and
Monorail)
Option 2:
Enhanced
MRVC
Model
Option 5: As
Option 4 but
including All
Higher Order
Regional Transit
(Including Buses)
& Major Roads
ExistingUMTA
ExistingUMTA
Option 3: As
Option 2 but
with Exclusive
Suburban Rail
Organization
(SPV)
ExpandedUMTA
ExpandedUMTA
RegionalTransportation
Authority
RegionalTransportation
Authority
Figure 15-4: Evolution of Institutional Arrangements & Dedicated Urban Transport Fund for Mumbai
15.3 Time Bound Action Plan
The actions/ tasks required for achieving the institutional arrangements for the
Enhanced MRVC Model, which is the interim stage for Mumbai, including the
establishment of the SRSSA have been identified. Brief description on each of
the steps is given below.
1. Determine participating Central Government Partners: Development of
suburban system needs active and coordinated involvement of Indian
Railways, Ministry of Urban Development and Ministry of Finance. MRVC
needs to start dialogue with the suggested Central Ministries for assessing
the likely roles in development, operation and management of suburban
railway systems.
2. Determine participating State Agency Partners; including roles and
responsibilities: Transport infrastructure planning, execution, operation and
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maintenance are taken care by number of stakeholders. Specific to
Suburban railway system, the system planning, operation and maintenance
is taken care by Indian Railways (through Western and Central zonal
railways) and MRVC. MMRDA and CIDCO have been playing a major role in
development of suburban railway under MUTP programs. There is a need
for continuation of their roles and further involvement of major ULBs like
Municipal Corporations of Greater Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, etc. as the
benefits of development/ improvement of suburban railway system in MMR
are wide and all the organisations are expected to benefit from it. MRVC
need to initiate dialogue with major ULBs of MMR for their roles in
development of suburban railway system.
3. Prepare new MRVC Incorporation Agreement: MRVC is a Public Sector
Undertaking of Govt. of India under Ministry of Railways (MoR) with an
equity capital 51:49 between Ministry of Railways and Government of
Maharashtra. MRVC currently is responsible to execute the projects under
Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) as sanctioned by Ministry of
Railways. Any new agreement needs to clearly address the roles of the
board of directors and the powers conferred on the board members by their
respective appointing agencies particularly with respect to financial matters.
One of the key responsibility of MRVC should be to secure firm
commitments of the agencies to the annual and a 5 year Business Plans,
Capital and Operating Budgets; The proposed institutional change for
existing MRVC i.e. Enhanced MRVC, warrants some changes in the MRVC
incorporation agreement. MRVC needs to take initiative towards having
discussions with IR, Government of Maharashtra and other Central
Government ministries (MoUD, Ministry of Finance, etc.) and Government
of Maharashtra, major ULBs who are expected to be part of Enhanced
MRVC and prepare a new incorporation agreement.
4. Establishing a Suburban Rail System Service Area (SRSSA) for MMR: In
MMR, the suburban railway systems are operated and managed by Western
and Central railways. These zonal railways are vested with operation of
inter-city passenger and freight as well as suburban operations within their
jurisdiction. It is suggested that there should be a separate zonal system for
suburban rail operations which may be called Mumbai Suburban Rail (MSR).
It’s essential characteristic will be elimination of Western and Central
Railway classification, and taking over of all the suburban operations and
maintenance of all railway infrastructure and control of train movements
including all long-distance services terminating or passing through the zone
from Western and Central railways. The operational jurisdictions of Western
Railway and Central Railway shall be redefined after creation of MSR.
Towards this, the following sub-tasks have been identified:
a) Notification by GoI, Ministry of Railways, to establish a new zone
b) Parliamentary approval
c) Preparation of budget, including set up costs of approximately INR 100
crores
d) Appointment of General Manager
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e) Transfer of offices from other zonal railways, which are currently
operating the city/ regional suburban railways
f) Development of establishment by the GM and officers
g) Identification of suitable office accommodation
h) Transfer of staff from other zonal railways
i) Implementation of revisions to accounting systems
5. Establishing the principle of setting rail fare structures within SRSSA
independent of other suburban rail systems in India: Currently, the
suburban rail system fares are same across all Indian cities. This appears to
be a deliberate government policy, and not a legal requirement. The
planned investment programme for the Mumbai suburban railway system
will undoubtedly improve the level of service for the passengers and it would
seem reasonable that they contribute to the cost of this through the fare-
box. In the past, adjustments to fare levels have been made to recover the
cost of specific investment25
. MRVC needs to take lead in discussions and
debates with Indian Railways for establishing the principle of setting a
separate rail fare structure for suburban rail system in MMR considering the
capital investment needs, operation and maintenance needs, etc.
6. Confirm SRSSA fares to be a revenue source to MRVC: MRVC is expected to
be the organization responsible for overall planning, operation and
maintenance of Mumbai Suburban Rail, for which, it needs revenue streams.
Currently, the revenue coming from fare goes to IR. MRVC needs to be
vested with special powers for collecting and retaining the fare, to fund
capital development, operation and management of MSR operations.
7. MRVC to prepare and obtain approval of 5, 10 and 20 year Business Plans
(short, medium and long term) and Budgets for Capital Projects to
maintain the suburban rail system in state of good repair, to achieve
approved service levels and to accommodate future growth: CTS for MMR
carried out by MMRDA and further studies carried out by MRVC propose
suburban capacity enhancements to existing suburban railway system and
new railway lines for the horizon period 2031. MRVC is suggested to raise
funds from alternate sources for capital investment and O&M needs26
.
Based on these studies, MRVC is suggested to prepare and obtain approvals
of 5, 10 and 20 year Business Plans.
8. Prepare and obtain approvals of Annual Business Plans and Operating
Budgets, including financial requirements of partners, and defining clear
roles and responsibilities of partners: Following the Short term Business
Plan, MRVC needs to obtain the approval of annual plans. Further, MRVC is
advised to update the medium and long term business plans at an interval of
5 years keeping in mind the delivery of planned suburban transport
infrastructure, changes in travel demand by various modes of transport,
implemented transport infrastructure by other Organisations, etc. For this
the following sub-tasks have been identified.
25 In particular, a surcharge is currently in place on the Harbour line routes which provide connectivity to Navi Mumbai area. 26
fare box, commercial exploitation of railway stations/ vacant lands, inter-governmental transfers, transfer from the stakeholders, grants from beneficiary Organisations, etc.
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a) Prepare and obtain approvals of Annual Business Plans and Operating
Budgets
b) Assessing Financial Requirements of Partners for getting approvals
c) Defining Clear Roles and Responsibilities of Partners
d) Financial and Procedural Agreements/ Arrangement for services being
provided by partners and/ or being outsourced
9. Establish the principal of optimizing the transit supportive development of
surplus non-operating railway lands within the SRSSA for development by
the private sector including agreement that resulting funds be allocated to
implement the SRSSA capital program: In MMR, there is substantial
demand for properties located very close to the transit stations. One of the
potential sources of revenue for MRVC could be commercial development of
surplus non-operating railway lands within SRSSA. MRVC needs to develop
strategies for development of surplus non-operating railway lands by the
private sector and ensure that the funds raised would be allocated towards
implementing the planned and approved capital programs.
10. Formulating mechanisms for effective coordination among the various
stakeholders: In MMR, there are number of planning and execution
agencies/ organisations of infrastructure. There are immediate concerns
being voiced by many agencies involved with major infrastructure projects
in MMR including MRVC, on resolving, in timely manner issues that are
causing significant delays in project execution. MRVC needs to establish
good coordination mechanism within MRVC and with Central Railway,
Western Railway, Railway Board and the Government of Maharashtra and
its associated departments/ agencies/ organisations and also seek for
establishing a high level coordination mechanism among all for
implementation of planned suburban infrastructure in timely manner.
11. Continued segregation of main line and suburban operations: MRVC needs
to plan for continued segregation of main line and suburban operations
through MUTP III, MUTP IV, etc. and joint efforts with other development
authorities and ULBs.;
12. Fast track all non-fare box revenue sources like advertisement,
commercialization of stations, land development, etc.: MRVC needs to
plan for enhancing the sources of funds for capital funding and O&M short
falls of the suburban system in MMR through commercial development of
stations, land development, non-fare box revenue sources like
advertisement, etc..; and
13. Efforts to raise the capital funding from FDI, multi-lateral funding
agencies, etc.: MRVC shall explore the possibilities of capital funding from
FDI, multi-lateral funding agencies, etc. for the planned works under MUTP
III, MUTP IV, etc.
The Table 15-1 sets out an indicative time line required for implementation of
each of the above stated tasks. Most of the tasks to be accomplished are related
to Indian Railways and Government of Maharashtra. MRVC is ideal organization
to take initiation and make IR and Government of Maharashtra to understand
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the need for further institutional changes. MRVC is also suggested to take the
help of World Bank in successful achievement of proposed institutional change.
Once these tasks are accomplished, a review on the time required for achieving
the form of ‘Regional Transport Authority’ will need to be undertaken. However,
it is felt that it may take at least 5 years for its creation, provided immediate
action is initiated by the IR.
The above tasks would be undertaken in conjunction with the setting up of an
enhanced UMTA as described earlier and shown in Figure 15-2. However the task
descriptions assume that an interim partnership has to be put in place until a
statutory empowered UTA and UTF are in effect. This partnership would likely
be similar to the current MRVC partnership between IR and the State.
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Table 15-1: Implementation Program for Interim Arrangement- Enhanced MRVC Model
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
1 Determine participating Central Government Partners
2 Determine participating State Agency Partners
3 Prepare new MRVC Incorporation Agreement
4 Establishing a Suburban Rail System Service Area (SRSSA)
4.1 Notification by GoI Minister of Railways to establish the new zone
4.2 Parliamentary approval
4.3 Preparation of budget, including set up costs of approximately INR 100 crores
4.4 Appointment of General Manager
4.5 Transfer of offices from other zonal railways which are currently operating the city/ regional suburban railways
4.6 Development of establishment by the GM and officers
4.7 Identification of suitable office accommodation
4.8 Transfer of staff from other zonal railways
4.9 Implementation of revisions to accounting systems
5 Establishing the principle of setting rail fare structures within SRSSA independent of other suburban rail systems in India
6 Confirm SRSSA fares to be a revenue source to MRVC
7 Prepare and obtain approvals of Annual and 5 Year Business Plans and Operating Budgets, including financial requirements
of partners, and defining clear roles and responsibilities of partners. Establish financial and procedural
agreements/arrangements for services being provided by partners and/or being outsourced.
7.1 Prepare and obtain approvals of Annual and 5 Year Business Plans and Operating Budgets
7.2 Financial Requirements of Partners
7.3 Defining Clear Roles and Responsibilities of Partners
7.4 Financial and Procedural Agreements/ Arrangement for services being provided by partners and/ or being outsourced
8 MRVC to prepare and obtain approval of 5, 10 and 20 year Business Plans (short, medium and long term) and Budgets for
Capital Projects to maintain the suburban rail system in state of good repair, to achieve approved service levels and to
accommodate future growth
9 Establish the principal of optimizing the transit supportive development of surplus non-operating railway lands within the
SRSSA for development by the private sector and including agreement that resulting funds be allocated to implement the
SRSSA capital program.
10 Formulating mechanisms for effective coordination among the various stakeholders
11 Continued segregation of main line and suburban operations
12 Fast track all non-fare box revenue sources like advertisement, commercialization of stations, land development, etc.
13 Efforts to raise the capital funding from FDI, multi-lateral funding agencies, etc.
Task No. Task Name
2016 2017 2018
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16. Way Forward
16.1 National/ Regional Perspective
Each urban region in India, either having a suburban rail system or aspiring to
establish a suburban rail system, will have its own unique set of characteristics,
current institutional arrangements, and immediate and long term planning and
economic development objectives.
The MOUD National Urban Transportation Policy (NUTP) and the subsequent
more specific processes to establish statutory empowered Urban Metropolitan
Transportation Authorities (UMTA) and ‘ring fenced” Urban Transport Funds
(UTF) are provide reasonable and proactive steps to properly structure the
provision of urban transport with suburban rail being one of the potential modal
elements. States and/or local urban authorities are being mandated to lead and
implement this process. However it inevitably will involve partnerships with all
levels of government and we believe parties or stakeholders contributing
significantly towards the UTF’s. This will be a lengthy transitional process but
understanding the end goal and having rationalized interim arrangements put in
place to address shorter and medium term needs will be absolutely necessary with
the backlog of transport issues evidenced in India’s metropolitan regions
Even in well-established city regions like London, Tokyo, Seoul, Paris and New
York the process of delivering high quality urban transport are continuously
evolving. The need for rethinking is the result of our limited ability to forecast
changing circumstances which are often outside the control of an individual
metropolitan region. Having flexible and resilient urban transport delivery plans is
more important than a one vision long term plan.
With this perspective in mind, this study has concluded that efforts to establish
longer term arrangements such as empowered UMTA’s and UTF’s must be done in
parallel with more attainable shorter term enhancements to meet immediate
needs. An example of this was the establishing MRVC to meet a historic need to
optimize the capacity of the critical rail corridors in Mumbai.
The MRVC model and the enhancements proposed are suggested as good
practices to be considered by other metropolitan regions across India. However
there is no “cookie cutter” approach. Each metropolitan region will have to tailor
make its own urban transport delivery plans.
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16.2 Mumbai Metropolitan Region
Figure 15-2: Regional Transport Authority, Urban Transport Fund and Regional
Suburban Rail Corporation is replicated here since it was intended to provide an
overview of the steps suggested for the immediate term in Mumbai.
Regional Suburban Rail Corporation
Enhanced UMTAInc. Financing Division
“Ring Fenced”Urban Transport
Fund
Negotiates Detailed
Arrangementswith IR
Examples of UTF Potential Sources
ProgressivelyEnhanced
MRVC Role
UMTA Composition• State Representatives• ULB representatives• Centre representatives
including IR• User representatives• Representatives of other
significant contributorsto UTF
• Establishes Participating Agency Partnership Agreements
• Prepares Business Plans• Defines Service Levels & Performance
Criteria by Modes• Establishes Modal Fare Tariffs • Secures Capital & Operating
Funding/Financing Commitments• Develops Multi-modal Expansion
Plans• Contracts Delivery of Modal Services
Through Subsidiary Agencies & Monitors Performance
Multi-modal Authority
Negotiate Incremental Prime Arrangements with Indian Railways on:• Ownership/use of suburban rail
assets• Tracks ,yards, shops,
rolling stock andancillary facilities
• ROW/Lands/Property• Stations
• General terms and conditionsof operating suburban trainservices on behalf ofUMTA including fiscalarrangements
UMTA Suburban Rail System
The consulting team heard a variety of opinions on the future options for Mumbai.
However it was found to be difficult to establish one voice opinions that reflected
the position of the State, IR or the Centre. Perhaps positions are evolving too,
because the issues are complex and such steps as downloading or clarifying
investment and operational responsibilities and raising fare tariffs are political hot
potatoes that are beyond the mandate of the individuals we consulted with.
It is recommended that through existing UMTA, a high level meeting is convened
with key representatives of the State, IR and the Centre to review the
recommendations of this study and if there is concurrence, to firm up the
negotiation process with the objectives to formulate the structure of an enhanced
UMTA, establishing the UTF and identifying the preferred institutional
arrangements, for the longer and immediate term operations of the suburban rail
system in the MMR and possible timeframes for implementation.
If possible a mandate should be given to an empowered Implementation Group to
negotiate the details of any restructuring arrangements including the legal steps,
financial undertakings and approval processes.
Institutional Development of the Suburban Rail System: Support to Indian Railways in the
Design and Implementation of their Suburban Rail Strategy
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While the above is being carried out it is recommended that, the Enhanced MRVC
as proposed in this report, be put in place as per the proposed Time bound Action
Plan to execute an agreed program of further improvements to the suburban rail
system. This will involve financial commitments from the State, IR and possibly
the Centre and funding from lending institutions.
16.3 Expediting Projects
There are immediate concerns being voiced by many agencies involved with
major infrastructure projects in MMR (including MRVC), on resolving, in a timely
manner issues, that are causing significant delays in project execution. With the
multiplicity of agencies involved in the public realm and the lack of urgency and
designated authority to quickly resolve matters, this is causing inordinate and
often publically criticised project delays, A single point agency with either
authority make decisions on issues, or at least to mediate disputes in a time bound
manner, is required.