Tuesday, August 28, 2012

EPW Article "Delhi Metro Rail: Beyond Mass Transit" by Pritpal Randhawa of CSSP, JNU

Delhi Metro Rail: Beyond Mass Transit

by Pritpal Randhawa

Economic & Political Weekly, 21 April 2012, 47(16), pp. 25-29.

Abstract: A decade has gone since the fi rst line of metro started in Delhi in 2002. Despite its expansion across the city in the past 10 years neither pollution nor congestion levels have gone down as claimed by its advocates. An analysis of the revenue generated by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation through property development and the rise of property prices adjacent to metro routes and stations suggests that the metro is entangled with the larger process of gentrifi cation in the city. It is restructuring urban space for capital accumulation by a series of dispossessions of the poor and by giving priority to metro routes for middle class colonies. Thus the metro may fulfi l the dreams of the ruling class and their city planners of transforming Delhi into a "world class city". But so far it has failed to provide equitable mass transit to the city.

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