Delhi Metro to beat London by ’17: Nath

Jan 21, 2011 |

New Delhi

The Delhi Metro will be bigger than London Metro by 2017. By one km. The newly-appointed Union urban development minister, Kamal Nath, on Thursday said that by 2017 the capital will have a total Metro length of 415 km, more than the London Metro network, which is planned to grow to 414 km from its current track length of 402 km.

He also said that there was a need to take a re-look at Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and figure what went wrong.
Interacting with reporters after taking charge on Thursday, Mr Nath said that urban infrastructure would be improved considerably and this will include increasing the existing Delhi Metro network of around 190 km to 415 km by 2017.
Mr Nath claimed that as a road transport minister he oversaw the highway network increasing to over 20,000 km at a rate of almost 12 km road constructed per day.
When he had taken over, he had set a target of 20 km per day.
The minister also stressed on the need for the expansion of the NCR zone with all the facilities. He added that a “new outlook and new vision” was needed to tackle other challenges related to urbanisation like sewage system and water supply.
Replying to the question whether he was happy with the new portfolio, Mr Nath was non-committal saying he took every assignment as a challenge. He added that the urban development ministry had a direct relation with the people and a lot of work was needed to be done.
Maintaining that he was not sure whether the second phase of JNNURM would become a reality, Mr Nath said that there was a need to re-look at what went wrong. In the last few months, the JNNURM had apparently been losing steam with the Planning Commission and the finance ministry refusing to allocate funds for the ambitious urban infrastructure improvement project.
The minister further said that the planning of cities will have to be carefully done to ensure that slums did not mushroom. Also, he added that the NCR would have to be expanded to ensure dispersal of crowd in Delhi and its neighbouring areas, which is bound to rise in the wake of rapid urbanisation.

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