On a weekday evening last month, Mumbai's southbound Aqua Line metro train nearly emptied out a couple of stops before the final one. On de-boarding, the last station bore the look of a desolate Soviet-era structure rather than a bustling train terminal in a city where crowds typically jostle for space. Aqua Line is the city's new fully underground metro train connecting the old business district of Cuffe Parade to newer commercial hubs like BKC and the airport terminals in the northern suburbs. It opened last year. The 33.5km (20.8 miles) corridor was expected to ease congestion in India's financial capital and projected to carry nearly 1.5 million passengers every day. The actual numbers are about a tenth of that, as per various estimates. Not a lot of people are using the line. It's too expensive, a ticketing executive told the BBC at Cuffe Parade station. The low ridership on this corridor is part of a broader trend confronting the rapid expansion of India's metro network. Since 2014, the Narendra Modi government has splashed out over $26 billion on building metro connectivity across nearly two dozen Indian cities. The network has grown fourfold from under 300km to more than 1,000km by 2025. Average daily ridership has also almost quadrupled from three million to over 11 million people in the last decade. But these grand aggregate numbers mask worrying underlying data. Most metro systems in India have failed to achieve even a sliver of the ridership projected during their planning stages, according to experts. An Indian Institute of Technology Delhi report from 2023 showed ridership of merely 25-35% of the projected figures across corridors. According to additional studies, ridership in tier-3 cities such as Kanpur was as low as 2% of the projected estimate, while in Chennai it was at 37% for the first phase. This underutilization raises critical questions about the efficacy of urban transport planning in a country where public transportation needs are acute. It’s a confluence of factors starting with consultants often inaccurately projecting potential demand, says Ashish Verma, a transportation expert. The affordability of metro travel also poses a significant barrier. In many cases, fare structures are a financial strain for lower-income users, easily consuming more than the global benchmarks for public transport affordability. Despite the myriad issues, analysts predict an incremental increase in metro usage as urban congestion escalates. Calls for genuine solutions, including better fare integration and improved last-mile connectivity, are essential to ensure India’s efforts to modernize urban transport systems don't fall flat.
India's Metro Challenge: Billions Spent, Few Commuters
India's Metro Challenge: Billions Spent, Few Commuters
Despite an investment of $26 billion in metro infrastructure across India, ridership remains alarmingly low, with actual usage often falling short of projections. Experts highlight the affordability crisis, poorly projected demand, and inadequate last-mile connectivity as key barriers to usage.
India's aggressive metro expansion has not translated into expected ridership, with significant underperformance noted across various cities. While over $26 billion has been invested in metro projects since 2014, only a fraction of projected riders are using the services, largely due to high costs and inconvenient access routes. Experts call for better integration of public transport systems to improve usage rates.
