Not for public transport series – Part 3: Why has the Pune Metro not been able to reduce private vehicles?

Now that both the Aqua Line and the Purple Line are operational barring a couple of stations, The Indian Express takes a look at the extent to which the Pune Metro has been able to achieve its primary aim.

What do the numbers say?

The Pune Metro is very far from reaching the ridership figures estimated in its Detailed Project Report (DPR).

The final report submitted in 2015 predicted a combined daily ridership figure of over 6 lakh per day for the year 2021, while the “optimistic” scenario predicted a greater ridership of 10 lakh per day.

However, the actual numbers paint a dismal picture. In May, the Pune Metro carried a total of 47,62,865 riders. This translates to 1,53,640 or 1.53 lakh riders per day — 25 per cent of the projected 6 lakh number.

Worryingly, the number of passengers travelling on the metro every day has not increased in the past months.

In October 2024, before which the Purple Line was completed with the inauguration of the Swargate Metro station, the ridership figures stood at 1.55 lakh per day. Similar figures can be observed till April.

Prashant Inamdar from the group Pedestrian First told The Indian Express, “There has not been any significant improvement in the traffic situation on roads, even in the influence area of the metro corridors… The low daily ridership of Metro also clearly indicates that there has not been any major shift from private vehicles to Metro.”

Similarly, Chothe added, “There is a lot of traffic along the route, especially at Nashik Phata, Khadki, and a signal near Bopodi. I personally don’t feel that the Metro has reduced traffic on the route.”

Warnings ignored

Ashok Sreenivas, then with the NGO Parisar, had claimed that there were flaws in the project’s original DPR. He had then said that the cost-benefit analysis, time savings, and estimated ridership figures presented in the report were deeply flawed and unlikely to be realistic.

An 2011 article by Sreenivas published in Economic and Political Weekly titled ‘Urban Transport Planning: Lessons from the Proposed Pune Metro Rail’ said, “The DPR also states that 75% of the journeys are less than 9 km. Assuming an average speed of 20 kmph for other modes, 75% of the journeys would take a maximum of 27 minutes by other modes and 16 minutes by metro rail. Therefore, the travel time saving is just 11 minutes for 75% of the journeys. Metro rail users who have shifted from two-wheelers or cars would not save any time in walking to the metro rail station and waiting for a train – in fact, they would lose time.”

Talking to The Indian Express, Sreenivas said, “The paper was written nearly 15 years ago. As the author of the paper, I guess I’m happy that the analysis is borne out. But, whether it is good for the city is an open question.”

He added that infrastructure projects in the country were prone to inflated figures.

“Many infrastructure projects, such as flyovers, are unfortunately likely to have similar issues. To get investment, project benefits, such as the time saved, tend to be overestimated and costs under-estimated,” he added.

Ranjit Gadgil, Programme Director at NGO Parisar, says that the issues with the DPR were taken up with relevant authorities before the construction began but the concerns were dismissed.

What do the authorities say?

When asked about if the Metro had been successful in reducing the number of private vehicles on the street, Dr Hemant Sonawane, Executive Director (Administration & Public Relations) at Maha Metro, said, “We started with 5,000 daily ridership and have risen up to almost 1,65,000 per day. I think people who stay near the metro corridor, maybe 500 metres, or one kilometer, they have started using (the metro).”

He added that they were concentrating on feeder bus services, already existing at nine stations.

“If we can see how better feeder service we can provide and so that people from the nearby areas can come easily to the Metro and seamlessly to the Metro station and make the longer journey on the Metro,” he said.

However, with the PMPML itself struggling with a lack of buses, he said the job was that much more difficult.

Sonawane did not provide a deadline for when an increase in daily ridership figures could be expected.

Reducing the gap between trains from 7 minutes to 6 minutes during peak hours and 10 minutes to 8 minutes during non-peak hours to boost ridership is a move that the Metro is looking to implement in the next two months, said Sonawane.