Giving A fillip to urban transportation system

KVB Reddy, MD & CEO, L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad) Limited, in an interaction with Industry Outlook, shares his insights on present state and future opportunities for the Metro Rail industry. He also throws light on the issues pertaining to last-mile connectivity, contactless traveling and more.

India is now heavily investing in the country’s transport infrastructure, imitating the Western Transportation System. How is the metro rail industry developing in India? What are the key factors driving the growth?

Metro Rail as part of the Urban Mass Rapid Transit system in India has come a long way. Starting from horse-pulled trams in the late 19th Century in Kolkata, we have come to the stage of driverless options to run the metro rail in the 21st Century. This has been an incredible journey so far and with the advancement in technology this journey is getting better each passing day.

An efficient transport system is crucial for the overall socio-economic development of any country. The transport network of India is one of the large-scale networks in the world. With rapid urbanization, transportation has also evolved based on changing necessities with a futuristic outlook. With its pace, the country is all set to transform its urban transport mobility in the upcoming 5-10 years.

The government has also taken up metro rail feasibility studies across cities with over two million population. Government initiatives like Atma-Nirbhar Bharat and Make in India have significant implications for Metro Rail Projects. As a sustainable mode of urban transportation, Metro Rail has received a tremendous thrust on the adoption of new technologies in every aspect of the project, right from the concept stage to commissioning. In fact, our Indian Metrorail systems are comparable with the best networks in the world in terms of technology adoption.

Evidence from several countries suggests that last-mile connectivity solutions enhance citizens’ mobility and increase metro rail ridership. How is the Indian metro rail segment approaching to attain last-mile connectivity from the present station-centric infrastructure?

Statistics show that by 2025, India’s population is expected to grow to 1.4 billion and about 40 percent of whom are urban. The number of cities with populations exceeding 50 million is projected to double by 2025. This population growth will accentuate the existing pressures on India’s public transportation systems. In this scenario, metro rails have come as a big respite for city dwellers reducing urban transport-related issues, such as traffic congestion, air and noise pollution, and accidents.

Talking of Hyderabad Metro Rail, we have promoted feeder services, to help commuters in reaching metro stations from their points of journey origin (shared autos, shuttle cabs, or app-based bikes and cars). These services got impacted due to COVID-19 pandemic, however, we are liaising with local govt and civic bodies to restore this very important connectivity for the benefit of commuters.

We have also been collaborating with service partners to provide better options for our passengers for first and last-mile connectivity so that they can reduce their dependency on private vehicles and start using the metro more often. Recently, we further strengthened our first and last-mile connectivity by collaborating with MetroRide, the Artificial Intelligence-enabled ride-hailing mobility platform for the benefit of our passengers.

With the Indian metro industry looking to increase passenger volumes, they need to address demand for safe and contactless traveling with a more convenient and comfortable passenger experience. How is the metro rail industry of India addressing the need for enriched travel experience?

There is a tremendous thrust on the adoption of new technologies in every aspect of the project, right from the concept stage to commissioning. In fact, our Indian metro system today is at par with any other metro system in the world. Whether it is the signaling system (CBTC System), modern lightweight aluminium built rolling stock, or the adaptation of BIM.

At Hyderabad Metro Rail, we have been ensuring the best services to passengers with maximum focus on digitisation. We have contactless Automatic Fare collection (AFC) system, which has improved the efficiency of fare box collection and made the journey convenient for the commuters.

For passenger convenience, we have also introduced QR based ticket booking through our own mobile app ‘TSavaari’ and other third-party apps (viz. Paytm, Phonepe). This single move has helped our customers to go for digital tickets and save time and space; thereby beating the long queues specially during the Covid times. We are also on the verge of implementing an Account-based Ticketing System in near future. This will be a next league of ticketless way of journey - allowing people to travel using a secure token, linked to an account.

As the globe progresses towards the collective goal of net zero, the environmental sustainability of the transportation industry is an important topic to be explored. How is the metro rail industry of India progressing towards the green path?

The fast-growing urban mass rapid transit sector in India is transforming the dynamics of how people used to travel. The conscious adoption of new sustainable technologies and eco-friendly design and construction of these projects offer great potential to reduce the impact of the construction and management of works from an environmental, economic, and social viewpoint.

The metro by itself is an efficient transit system on account of steel-to-steel friction being low and due to the use of electricity as fuel. For example, at Hyderabad Metro Rail, we are putting the metro train itself to our advantage by adopting a state-of-the-art converter inverter-based propulsion system. This system has the capability of pumping back energy to the source, i.e., electric grid during braking mode. Moreover, our metro trains have a 25kV AC system which has greater receptibility for regenerated energy.

Apart from the energy regenerated, which is almost 25 million units per annum of regeneration, we have also opted for solar power and have started almost 8.3 Mwp of solar plant capacity in our depots as well as stations—which gives us about 10 million units per annum. This amounts to almost 15 percent of our total energy consumption. And there is still scope—we want to take it further up to 15 mw.

Also, every station and depot have water-harvesting pits. In depots, our train wash plant uses recycled water. In fact, 20 of our stations are LEED Platinum certified by IGBC.

How do you see the metro rail industry of India evolving in the future?

Population and economic growth have fostered urbanization in India. We have witnessed consistent growth in the number of urban towns and cities. The growth is expected to continue in the years to come; and India needs to step up its game to catch up with this kind of change. While this makes the prospects for the urban transport sector very optimistic, the limited transportation infrastructure is going to be stressed by this demand.

We would be soon witnessing the advent of two new technologies -- 'MetroLite' and 'MetroNeo' --to provide metro rail systems at much lesser cost with same experience, convenience and safety in tier-2 cities and peripheral areas of tier-1 cities, which will provide fillip to urban transportation system across the country. Being on high priority to the government, the future outlook of Urban Transportation Sector in India remains bright.