When it comes to transportation in India, the first thing that probably comes to most people's minds is a train full of people.
However, there is one set of data that may surprise everyone.
By the end of 2023, there will be 18 cities in India that are actually operating metro/light rail, with a total operating mileage of 905 km.
In addition, nearly 1,000 km of MRT/LRT projects are under construction in 27 cities, including Kanpur, Surat, Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Indore, Agra, Patna, Kochi, Pune, Nagpur and Lucknow.
Moreover, if you travel to India and take the subway, you may find that some subway stations are doing well, a bit like a subway station in a big Chinese city.
You may even sigh: India, it turns out that it has been underestimated.
Schematic diagram of the development process of the metro system in Delhi, India
Today, nearly 6 kilometers of new tracks are in operation every month, and according to Indian officials, India's metro will soon surpass the United States to become the world's second-largest metro network.
Let's talk about the Indian Metro today.
India's metro construction plan is very early, dating back to 1919.
At that time, the British colonial authorities launched the Kolkata subway construction plan, and announced that the first phase of the project would be opened to traffic in 1925.
But at that time, India was poor and weak, and there was no money to build it.
It was not until the 80s of the last century that the first phase of India's first subway, the Kolkata Metro, was opened.
In 1998, the construction of the metro began in Delhi, the capital of India, and the first phase of the project was put into operation in 2002.
The old Kolkata Metro
Nowadays, the "grand occasion" of India's large-scale subway construction in the form of "spreading the pie" starts with Modi's coming to power.
In 2014, Modi was just elected prime minister of India, and he vowed to make India a manufacturing powerhouse.
The rehab of the metro is part of the effort to improve India's backward infrastructure.
At that time, India's national metro network was only 229 kilometers spread across five cities.
The Modi government pushed for a massive expansion of the metro network, which has grown to eight or nine hundred kilometres over the course of several years.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Noida Metro in Uttar Pradesh on December 25, 2017, Modi said, "Today, many cities in India are already operating metro. Soon, the number of cities operating the metro will reach 50, and the world will be amazed at the fact that India has completed the metro on such a scale that is rarely seen in any other country in the world. ”
The city with the largest metro mileage in India is Delhi, with 11 existing lines, 285 stations and a total length of 391 kilometers, making it the largest urban metro system in India.
Outside the capital, major cities such as Mumbai, Bangalore, and Kolkata, as well as many second- and third-tier cities, are vigorously developing subways.
Indian officials have set an even bigger goal: by 2047, the 100th anniversary of India's independence, 100 cities will have subway operations in 100 cities, and the national rail network will exceed 5,000 kilometers.
Delhi Metro
In fact, in the decade from 2014 to 2024, India has indeed made some gains in attracting foreign investment, and world-renowned companies such as Foxconn, Samsung, and Micron have set up production lines in India.
The metro is a landmark infrastructure that measures the level of development of a country and a city.
However, India is vigorously repairing the subway, but it is facing an embarrassing problem: the passenger flow is not good.
According to official Indian data, ridership in the subway/light rail system in India's major cities is 30% below the expected value, and the Delhi Metro Corporation DMRC is the most efficient city, barely reaching the expected 47.45%.
In congested Bangalore, the actual passenger flow of Metro Line 1 was only 6% of the expected value.
The metro in the capital of India has an average daily ridership of 2.76 million passengers.
In China, the average daily passenger volume of the Beijing subway network in 2023 will be 9.434 million passengers per day.
India's capital is roughly equivalent to the country's second-tier cities.
Delhi metro tickets
Why don't Indians buy the metro?
First, 75% of the population in most Indian cities commute less than 10 kilometers.
What is this concept?
Converted to Beijing, 10 kilometers is the distance from Guomao to Fuxingmen.
However, the positioning of the metro is actually more suitable for intra-city transportation of at least a few tens of kilometers, as well as commuting from the suburbs to the city farther away.
In Beijing, for example, it takes more than 20 kilometers from Guomao to the Summer Palace, and about 50 kilometers from the Universal Resort in the suburbs to the Summer Palace in the city, and these are not the longest trips of the Beijing subway.
From this point of view, it seems that most Indians do not have the option of taking the metro.
Secondly, Indian metro tickets are too expensive.
A few years ago, metro fares increased from Rs. 8-28 to Rs. 10-60 respectively, and the average distance fare increased from Rs. 30 to Rs. 40, an average increase of 91 per cent.
So, what is the average salary in India?
According to data from India's statistics department and recruitment agencies, in 2022, the average daily minimum wage in India is 178 rupees, which is equivalent to about 15 yuan.
According to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of India, in January 2023, the average monthly salary in India was 33,142 rupees, which is equivalent to less than 2,900 yuan.
However, on the Internet, many Indians believe that this official figure is too high, and their wages simply do not meet this standard.
It can be said that the ratio of subway fares to wages in India is much higher than that of subway fares in China.
The distance that can be solved by walking or cycling itself has greatly dampened demand, and combined with the combination of price factors, it is not difficult to understand why India's metro is undertrafficked.
Local data shows that the Delhi Metro saw a 15% drop in ridership after raising fares in 2017.
A city street in India
According to a study, in India, if low- and middle-income workers mainly rely on the subway to commute to work, 19% of their monthly income will be spent on transportation; In some cities, such as Delhi, the cost of transportation can cost 22% of a manual worker's monthly income, Mumbai is 24%, and Hyderabad is as high as 33%.
Some people use purchasing power parity to calculate that the ticket price in Delhi is actually higher than that in Hong Kong, China.
"Like Indian Railways, no one of India's metro systems is able to make ends meet." The Indian Institute of Management said bluntly in a research report.
In 2023, the British "Economist" also said in a special article that most cities in India may not be suitable for the construction of subways at present.
In fact, this is also the case, and the subways across India are generally losing money.
In FY 2021-2022, the Bangalore MRT recorded revenue of Rs 2,287.6 crore and expenditure of Rs 3,456 crore and a loss of Rs 1,180 crore.
India's Economic Times reported that the Delhi Metro Company lost about 93 million rupees a day (more than 8 million yuan in Chinese yuan).
You know, the Delhi Metro Company is the most commercialized and most profitable metro company in all cities in India.
One can imagine how the metro companies in other cities in India are losing money.
Modi takes the metro
The subway can be said to be Modi's "political performance project".
In the face of doubts, India's Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs hastened to stand up for the "boss" Modi, refuting these claims, and arguing that India's continuous construction of subways reflects India's ambitions.
Because most of the subways in Indian cities are still very young, most of them will be completed in about 5-10 years, the passenger market needs time to cultivate, and more importantly, the value of the subway is not only economic, but also environmental and social value.
After that, the Delhi Metro Company also rushed to respond, saying that it was doing well and was paying its debts on schedule.
But no matter what the Indian authorities say, the most basic facts are:
Nineteen percent of Delhi people still live in slums, and 34 percent of Delhi households earn less than 12,500 rupees (about 1,000 yuan) a month.
If measured by international standards, that is, the proportion of transportation expenditure to the average monthly income of the 20% of the lowest income earners, this indicator is 14% in Delhi, 2.9% in Hong Kong, 6.6% in Paris, and 5.7% in Shanghai.
Obviously, the Indian metro is good, but it is still too expensive for the average person to sit on.
Some professionals say that the construction of the Indian metro can also reflect the state of the Indian economy.
75% of the mileage of the Indian metro is elevated or on the ground, the entire line of Line 1 that has been opened in Mumbai is elevated, and the elevated rate of the Bangalore Metro is also as high as 79%.
However, in terms of service level, transfer, integration with buildings, landscape, and future urban space applications, it is clear that underground is superior to viaducts.
The biggest reason for the construction of the Indian subway on the elevated highway is the lack of money, after all, the construction of the elevated highway is difficult and the cost is low.
When it comes to the Indian subway, it's not entirely unrelated to China.
For example, a few years ago, India's Bangalore Metro wanted to engage in unmanned driving, and China's CRRC Group won the bid.
Unmanned subway is a piece of cake for CRRC, and it is also used in many cities in China.
Earlier, everyone cooperated well, but India insisted on "Make in India" and demanded that trains be produced in India.
However, as we all know, India's overall supporting level can not be compared with China, so the opening of the Bangalore Metro has been delayed.
Finally, the car was built, but India, another embarrassing situation was found:
It is necessary to ask Chinese experts to debug and teach the Indians, otherwise, they will not be able to handle it.
This is the Indian who is "born to be strong".