It isn't exactly Star Trek or like boarding the Starship Enterprise. But passengers travelling on the Delhi Metro will get a taste of hi-technology in action as they approach the network's ticket barriers.

They won't have to stop and fumble for their tickets. Instead, an automatic sensor will read their tickets (or the Contactless Smart Cards, as they are called) from the passenger's pocket or handbag.

That's only one of the many technological firsts on the Delhi Metro, which is gearing for its grand opening in December.

On September 17 trial runs will begin for the Delhi Metro's coaches that have been imported from Korea. By December, commuters will be able to travel in air-conditioned comfort along an 8 km stretch of the city.

For anyone who has ever travelled in Delhi's crowded and dilapidated buses the journey is almost sure to be a revelation.

The project is already a marvel by Indian standards. It has been built at breathtaking speed and the 8 km stretch between Shahdara and Tis Hazari is already over (work on the project started in 1998).

As many as 240 coaches - costing Rs 5 crore apiece - have been ordered and each one can carry 390 passengers. The entire 62 km project is slated to finish in four stages by 2005.

Says a confident E Sreedharan, managing director, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation: "It is an ambitious project and we are confident that we will complete it on schedule."

By any standards this is a gigantic project. Around Rs 8,000 crore is being invested in the first phase, which is scheduled to finish by September 2005. The DMRC has already used 30 per cent of its money to construct three lines - connecting Shahdara and Barwala, Delhi University with Central Secretariat and Connaught Place with Dwarka.

After completion, the DMRC estimates as much as 2.2 million commuters will use the metro daily. It is reckoned that the metro will result in savings of Rs 40 lakh every day from lower wear and tear of roads, savings in petrol and diesel and the need to build new roads.

One way or another, there's a lot hanging on the Delhi Metro. As the launch date draws closer, DMRC has started striking deals with companies that want to open stalls in the stations.

A contract has already been signed with McDonald's and negotiations are on with Nirulas to open fast food counters.

It is also in talks with the state-owned Delhi Transport Corporation, which will deploy 200 shuttle buses to carry rail passengers from the metro stations to other points of the city.

What's more, these buses will be equipped with the same sensors that will be used at the stations so that passengers can use their metro ticket in the buses as well.

If that is not enough, the DMRC is already pushing for the second phase of the project, which will cover another 42.1 kilometres and connect areas like Noida and Vasant Kunj to the centre of the city. The price tag will be Rs 8,000 crore (Rs 80 billion).

The Delhi Metro isn't the first in the country. That honour goes to the Kolkata Metro. But the Delhi project differs from it both in scale, speed and the new technologies, which are being used for the first time.

For instance, the 16.45 kilometre Kolkata Metro took 25 years to build. In contrast, the first phase of the Delhi project is slated to finish in only seven years though it is four times longer.

The Kolkata Metro is geared for a train every eight minutes during peak time, while the Delhi Metro will have trains every three minutes.

But is all the money spent worth it? And will the project generate enough revenue to pay for its operating and maintenance costs and depreciation apart from paying back the soft loans it has received from the Japanese government?

Says Sreedharan: "We are confident we will cover our operating and maintenance costs from day one." The DMRC expects an internal rate of return of over 2.3 per cent from the first day of operation.

His confidence is based on two premises - the DMRC has been able to raise cheap loans and he expects over 2.2 million passengers to travel on the metro daily. For instance, 56 per cent of the project cost (another 30 per cent has come in exchange for equity from the state and Central governments) has come from a Japanese concessional loan at an interest of only 1.8 per cent payable in 30 years with a 10-year moratorium.

That means there are no outgoings for the first 10 years. And the government is giving an interest free subordinate loan to cover the cost of land acquisition, which constitutes 8 per cent of the project cost.

The DMRC has calculated that 90 per cent of revenue will come from tickets and the remaining amount is expected to come from selling advertising space in the stations as well as property development.

Sreedharan expects to get a revenue of Rs 12 lakh (Rs 1.2 million) from the commuters who will take the metro from December on.

But many question the viability of the project. Says a senior official: "There is no consensus on how many passengers will take the metro. The viability of the project is totally dependent on this."

A similar view is expressed by others who have followed the project closely. "The approach is not to find an integrated transport solution. The DTC is not happy with the DMRC though they should complement each other. Relationship management with the Congress-run state government is also poor, leading to suspicion that the BJP government wants to take all the credit."

The DMRC had hired the National Council for Advanced Economic Research to work out a tariff plan. Insiders say the NCAER concluded that only 1.6 million to 1.7 million passengers would use the metro and fixed a tariff slab that started with Rs 5 for the first 2 km.

It decided that the costliest ticket would be Rs 10 at 2001 prices. At these rates, the NCAER reckoned that the project would be able to meet its operations and maintenance costs as well as meet its depreciation costs.

However, there are other problems too. Says a transportation expert: "The profile of the metro travelers are those who shift from a chartered bus or a two-wheeler and not the ones who cycle. The Shahdara-Tis Hazari route might be a drain as the lower middle-class might find the metro too expensive and they represent the catchment area. It might give a wrong signal about the project as this is the corridor that is being launched first."

The government still hasn't decided whether to give a green signal to the project's second phase. By the time a decision is taken the DMRC must demonstrate that it is on the right track and that its detractors are wrong.

(With additional reporting by Soumik Sen)

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