TITLE: Keeping Delhi Green and Moving: The Delhi Metro System
AIRDATE: Friday, August 7, 2009

Welcome, compassionate viewers, we are delighted to have you with us for another exciting episode of Golden Age Technology, here on Supreme Master Television. Today we have the pleasure of taking you to the city of Delhi in the spiritual land of India. Metropolitan Delhi encompasses New Delhi, the nation’s capital. The city’s Metro service is setting global standards in eco-conscious urban transportation. Since the inception of service in 2002, it has quickly gained popularity with the city’s 16 million residents.

The Metro has 68 kilometers of track currently in operation, with 65 stations in total, but the system is due to be extended 122 kilometers further, with another 70 stations added after the completion of Phase II of the construction project in 2010. Currently, approximately 800,000 Delhites rely on the service every day, with this number being projected to increase to 2 million passengers each day on completion of the Phase II expansion.

By reducing vehicular traffic, the Metro has helped avoid the release of an estimated 28,800 tons of carbon dioxide into Delhi’s air annually. Supreme Master Television recently spoke with Mr. Anuj Dayal, the Chief Public Relations Officer at the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) about the system and the Corporation’s pioneering green initiatives that have earned numerous international environmental certifications for the Metro system.

Let’s us now join our interview with Mr. Dayal and learn more about the environmentally-friendly Delhi Metro. Can you please share with us the benefits of the Delhi Metro System, and how it benefits the community and its people? Actually not only Delhi, I would say any metro system, there are more than 135 metros all over the world, the benefit of the metro is basically the social and economic benefit which the city gets. There is a huge time-savings, and there is a huge environmental-savings because of the pollution which it saves because of less vehicles being put on the roads.

Then apart from that in Delhi many people lose their lives here, because of road accidents. It’s a very accident- prone city. So traveling on the Metro, it is a very safe system. The social and economic benefits of a project like the Delhi Metro are immense. The system is world-class, with many self-automating features. Delhi Metro is a very modern metro system.

It has both underground and elevated lines, and we have an automatic Train Control System. We can run the Metro even without drivers. It has fully automatic fare collection systems, and it’s very popular among the public of Delhi. In February 2009, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation received the United Nations Green Certificate, a first in the world for a rail network. This honor was given for avoiding the release of 90,000 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere between 2004 and 2007 through use of an energy-saving technology on the rail cars. Approximately 112,500 megawatt hours of power generation was also conserved by using this innovation.

It’s the first railway network which received the United Nations Green Certificate for its green initiatives. Could you please share with us about this? Yes, that’s right, we were recognized by the United Nations and we have got carbon credits. We got the carbon credits for something called regenerating braking. You see, when our trains apply their brakes, about 33 percent of the energy goes back into the system; the energy is not wasted.

Thirty-three percent is recycled again back to the trains and it is reused. So this has been converted through the carbon credit mechanism into money. And we’ve registered ourselves with the United Nations and we have been credited accordingly. So this is the first railway system which has got this credit. Are there any other green initiatives that you have implemented around the Metro stations? Yes, you see for example when we were constructing the Metro, we had to cut some trees. So we have given a commitment for every one tree that we cut, we will plant 11 trees. So we have planted 11 times the number that we have cut.

And one of trees is planted in exactly the same location from where it was cut, and the remaining 10 trees are planted wherever we get land. Apart from that, we have a number of other environmental- friendly measures. For example, the noise generation, we have measured the noise before the Metro came, during the construction and after and we find that Delhi Metro has helped in reducing noise pollution also to a large extent in the city. Then we are very careful about many environmental issues. All the Metro trucks which are involved in the construction, the tires have to be very properly washed before they leave our work sites so that we don’t dirty the city roads. So we are very conscious about all the environmental requirements.

The social and economic benefits of this project are so huge, the entire cost, whatever cost has gone into the construction, the Delhi Metro Railway Corporation had already almost recovered the entire cost, because of the social and economic benefits which have gone to the city. We’ll be right back with more from our interview with Mr. Anuj Dayal from the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television. The passengers are very happy, because they are saving a lot of time.

They are saving almost 60 minutes every day, which is 60 minutes of your life I am giving back to you, which otherwise you’ll spend in traveling, Welcome back to Golden Age Technology. Today we are discussing the green accomplishments and achievements of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation with Mr. Anuj Dayal, Chief Public Relations Officer of the organization.

The metro system constructed by the Corporation is located in India’s populous city of Delhi which also encompasses New Delhi, the nation’s capital. The Delhi Metro is one of the most environmentally sustainable public transportation systems in the world. The Corporation takes great care in the protection of the environment, the health and safety of its workers and the maintenance of all its stations and structures.

Helping to retain the natural beauty of the city is also of high priority for the Corporation. We asked Mr. Dayal about the popularity of the system. (It is) very popular, (with a) very huge demand, because before the Delhi Metro came, the city was totally dependent upon road transport. That was the only means available, and (with) 16 million people moving by road, the city roads become very congested. So with the Metro coming we have taken a lot of the pressure off of the city roads, and gradually it has become the main artery for carrying the public within the city. As with the current Phase - II addition to the system, great care was taken to be green with the initial construction of the Metro.

We tried to minimize the requirement for trees that had to be cut. We made our alignment in such a way that initially itself a number of trees were getting cut so we reduced that requirement quite a lot by doing reengineering. We’ve controlled the noise, we have controlled the vibrations, we look after the ecosystem around our construction sites, we make sure that there is no wastage, and there is no spillage on to city roads. So we do a complete detailed environmental impact assessment. Before we started the project, we got environmental clearance, and only after environmental clearance and constant environmental monitoring this project has been implemented.

Could you please elaborate more on the impact assessment and how it is conducted? This is done by an independent body outside and the government of India has a mechanism where this environmental report is studied in detail. Only after this environmental impact assessment has been cleared by the government of India can the project go ahead.

The Delhi Metro was the first metro in the world to be awarded the globally recognized Internationally Organization for Standardization or ISO 14001 certificate for its relatively low level of impact on the environment during its construction. We have got a number of certifications from international bodies. One was the United Nation’s carbon credit which you have asked me about. Apart from that, we were the first metro to get ISO 14001 during the construction phase, and we got ISO 14001 for environmental protection. Then we got a further advancement of that certificate; it’s called OHSAS 18001 this is given by R- I- N- A, RINA. It’s an Italy- based certification. We’ve got it again for environmental consciousness, not only helping in preserving the environment during the construction, also in the operation, because of the type of environment that we have generated within the Metro is very conducive to health.

So it’s helping your health and safety also, the type of air that you are breathing in the Metro is of very good quality. So all these have helped us in getting these certifications also. We expect to expand further also. Mr. Dayal gives us insight into the Metro’s future plans in term of expansion. We are looking at the master Metro network of 415 kilometers to be completed by the year 2021.

So with 414 kilometers, Delhi would have a very extensive metro network. It would help reduce pollution very heavily in the city and it would help save lives. So overall I think this project would be excellent for the city. It is inspiring to hear of the wonderful service the Delhi Metro is providing the city while at the same time helping to create a cleaner and more healthful environment for residents.

We would like to convey our appreciation to Mr. Anuj Dayal for providing us with many details on this splendid Earth-friendly mass transit system. We eagerly await more such noble and green-minded projects being implemented in cities all throughout the world. Thank you kind viewers for joining us today on Golden Age Technology.