A smoother passage through
India By Siddharth Srivastava
NEW DELHI - The way that urban Indians
commute and travel is set for a major
transformation over the next few years. Following
the widely hailed success of the Delhi Metro,
which at times transports nearly a million
passengers a day, other major Indian cities such
as Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, and
Kolkata are likewise looking to overhaul their
public transport systems.
With the rapidly
rising needs of overstretched public transport and
cargo movement systems, India’s estimated US$5 billion
passenger bus and truck market
is also in a state of flux. Public transport has
long been an area of neglect in India and the
systems as they exist are rudimentary and fail to
cater effectively to rapid urbanization, economic
growth and the population’s rising incomes.
Hundreds of thousands of cars daily
congest India’s cities, creating a traffic and
pollution nightmare due to the absence of
comfortable, safe and reliable means to commute.
However if things go to the government’s plan,
like many other neglected aspects in India, this
is set to change fundamentally, providing
important efficiency gains and a potential boost
to overall national competitiveness.
A
total of 12 mass rail transport projects are on
the drawing board. By the 2010 Commonwealth Games,
scheduled to be held in the national capital,
Delhi Metro will crisscross and connect technology
vibrant suburbs Noida and Gurgaon and will move
further into other suburbs such as Ghaziabad and
Manesar.
Japan has been closely involved
with the development of the Delhi metro, which is
set to increase its coverage to 400 kilometers of
track from its current 64km. Road traffic has
reportedly declined by 50% in areas where the
system is already in operation. That record is
winning the attention of other major,
traffic-clogged urban areas.
This week the
Punjab government signed an agreement with the
Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to implement
metro services in Ludhiana and also possibly in
the cities of Amritsar and Mohali. Metro
construction has already begun for Bangalore,
while Mumbai will begin shortly. With a planned
length of 33km, the $1.5 billion Bangalore project
is expected to carry more than a million
passengers per day.
In the first phase,
three lines have been proposed in Mumbai: Colaba
to Charkop (the longest route at more than 38km
and at a cost of $1.5 billion), Versova to
Ghatkopar and Bandra to Mankhurd. Altogether, the
planned Mumbai Metro will cost more than $4
billion and the deadline for all three phases is
2021. The government has also given clearance to
an elevated light railway project - to be called
the sky bus - with three corridors within Mumbai
city.
Private real estate developer DLF is
planning to build and run its own metro rail in
townships in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi. “We
will be tying up with an equipment manufacturer
and a rail automation-solution company in the next
four to six months,” a DLF spokesperson said.
The government has also earmarked more
than $1 billion to implement mass transit systems
in more than 60 different Indian cities and
attract the required foreign capital to complete
the projects. Smaller cities such as Lucknow,
Patna and Bhopal could pitch either for monorail
networks from Germany or more conventional systems
from Japan, analysts say. At least 35 cities have
already crossed the 1 million population mark and
require some type of rapid transport systems.
Foreign drivers Big construction
contracts are being distributed, including big
ticket projects involving prominent foreign firms.
Among the early winners are ITD Cementation India
Ltd in joint venture with its promoter
Italian-Thai Development Public Co; infrastructure
development company Hindustan Construction Company
in a tie-up with undisclosed Austrian and South
Korean corporations; and a consortium consisting
of RITES Ltd, PCI of Japan, PBI of the US and
SYSTRA of France. Others set to get in on the
building action include Larson & Toubro,
Bombadier, Siemens, Samsung, Mitsubishi, an-Alstom
consortium, and Itochu.
The bus and truck
production sector, long dominated by Tata Motors
and Ashok Leyland, is also set for a major
expansion. The sector is already growing at around
30% and currently the bus market is estimated at
over 50,000 units per year. Big global
multinationals, such as DaimlerChrysler, Nissan,
Isuzu, Volvo and Toyota, are all drawing up plans
to enter or ramp up their manufacturing presence
in the market.
Tata Motors has recently
formed an alliance with Brazilian Marco Polo to
assemble and deliver buses by mid-2008. According
to news reports, Japanese auto maker Toyota is in
talks with the Rajasthan government to procure
land to set up a new manufacturing facility
dedicated to the production of buses, trucks and
light commercial vehicles (LCV). The investment is
provisionally expected to be in the range of $500
million.
Toyota has an established
presence in the premium car and multi-utility
vehicle segment. Recently German automaker
DaimlerChrysler, manufacturer of luxury
Mercedes-Benz cars, announced that it was looking
to launch premium buses in India during the next
calendar year to add to its rollout of trucks.
The company has entered into an agreement
with Sutlej Motors, a Punjab-based bus
manufacturer. Chief executive officer of
DaimlerChrysler India, Wilfried Aulbur, said that
the company was looking at the truck and bus
segments in the country. Currently Merdedes cars
are being manufactured at a facility near Pune, in
the state of Maharashtra, where parts of the
bigger vehicles will be produced.
In
August Japan's Nissan Motor, in which France's
Renault is the biggest shareholder, tied up with
Ashok Leyland to jointly manufacture annually over
100,000 small trucks and LCV’s in India. “Our LCV
business and overall expansion into India
represents two of the biggest growth opportunities
for Nissan in the medium and long terms,’’ Carlos
Ghosn, Nissan's chief executive officer recently
said. Renault already has joint ventures with
utility maker Mahindra & Mahindra to produce
the mid-size car Logan and Bajaj Auto as part of a
strategy to challenge Tata’s plans to make India’s
cheapest car.
Volvo buses, too, are making
market inroads. The Swedish auto company is
looking at a target of 10,000 units over the next
five years. “We can achieve this by introducing
different global brands in India. We are looking
at the twin entry of Nissan Diesel and DongFeng
Company’s trucks,’’ Volvo India head Eric Leblanc
recently said.
The company has a
production facility in Bangalore, Karnataka and is
looking to introduce fully built buses with an
initial capacity of 500 units for intra and
inter-city transport. Volvo has entered into a
joint venture with Jaico Company for a bus
bodybuilding unit at Bangalore to pursue those
plans.
Japan’s Isuzu Motors also has big
production plans, with targeted sales to increase
to 6,000 units by 2012, six times the 1,000 it
expects to sell next year. Punjab-based Swaraj
Mazda Ltd, in which Japan’s Sumitomo Corp, has a
big stake, will produce mid-size buses for Isuzu.
Siddharth Srivastava is a New
Delhi-based journalist.
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2007 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.
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