The metro man, E. Sreedharan, today said Delhi Metro Rail Corporation is making an operational profit of Rs 2 crore per day.

“This was a great thing for a Government-owned corporation whose sole focus is to provide service to people. This profit is mainly due to completion of the project ahead of time and efficient management of the metro rail,” he explained.

Speaking at the Centre for Organisation Development, Sridharan said DMRC is now associated with more than 10 metro projects under various stages of conceptualisation.

Narrating the journey of the execution of the Delhi Metro project, he said it is now possible to bring down the overall time for execution of metro projects. “I am sure it is possible to do so as project developers gain Rs 2 crore for every day saved and lose Rs 2 crore for every day delayed,” he said.

He said when all four phases of the Delhi Metro project get executed it would have a total length of 420 km and become the fourth largest metro project in the world. When two phases were executed, it became the 13{+ }{+t}{+h} largest and with the third phase it would be the seventh largest metro project in the world.

Timely execution and the saving of two years and nine months in executing the first phase was a major achievement for the project.

Sreedharan, now an advisor with DMRC, said they were now associated with studies for more than 10 metro projects including those planned in Pune, Lucknow, Kanpur and Ahmedabad.

Referring to the PPP model for metros, he said, “It is yet to be tested as globally most metros are not profitable. The entire model is based on Government subsidies as it is meant for people’s transport. Hyderabad and Mumbai are based on the PPP mode and we need to see how they come up.”

The CoD today conferred the V. Krishnamurthy award for excellence on Sreedharan.

>rishikumar.vundi@thehindu.co.in

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