May 13, 2010
In
By
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/14/world/asia/14delhi.html?pagewanted=print
This sequence of events might seem utterly ordinary on train platforms in
The Delhi Metro manages to defy just about every stereotype of urban
In a country where government projects are chronically delayed and budgets are busted, the Metro is on track to finish its 118-mile network by fall, right on schedule and within its $6.55 billion budget.
"Metro's performance has been outstanding," said Pronab Sen,
The Delhi Metro is perhaps the most ambitious urban infrastructure project since
But that is changing as millions of impoverished villagers try to grab a slice of
A study published last month by the McKinsey Global Institute estimated that by 2030, 590 million Indians would live in cities and 70 percent of
Uniformly,
Much of the credit for its success is usually laid at the feet of one man, Elattuvalapil Sreedharan, a 77-year-old technocrat who serves as the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation's managing director. Mr. Sreedharan has a reputation for fearlessness and incorruptibility. At the Metro he has tried to create the culture of a private start-up business in the most unlikely of petri dishes: the epicenter of
Instead of dry procedural manuals, senior managers are given a copy of the Bhagavad-Gita, one of Hinduism's most important texts. But its significance is not religious, said Anuj Dayal, a spokesman for the Metro.
"It is a management text," he said of the book, which is taken from the Mahabharata, an epic poem at the heart of Hindu philosophy. "It is the story of how to motivate an unmotivated person."
The Bhagavad-Gita retells a battlefield dialogue between the god
It is a message that resonates with workers, many of whom came from
When trainees at the institute, which is packed to the gills to try to churn out enough employees to staff its new lines, suggested staggering lunch times in the cafeteria to ease crowding, Mr. Pathak made the change that very day.
"In the railway, change was very difficult," Mr. Pathak said. "In Metro, we are open to all ideas."
Some of its changes seem simple but are revolutionary by Indian standards. The Metro has contracted out as much of its work as possible, keeping its payrolls slim and its management structure as simple as possible, officials say. They jettisoned the ubiquitous string-tied paper files, emblematic of
Some critics of the Metro system say that the project ran roughshod over environmental concerns and land-rights issues, two factors that typically cause long delays in infrastructure projects. Others say that it has not integrated fully with the city's vast network of buses, which are much cheaper and cover far more ground. Nor is it clear that it can easily be replicated, since
No one appreciates the Metro more than riders. Pawan Sharma, a civil servant who commutes from the western suburb of Dwarka, was so impressed with the Metro that he signed up to be a volunteer monitor. With a blue badge affixed to his chest, he patrols the train cars for two hours in the morning and evening, looking for people breaking the rules. He receives no compensation, not even free Metro rides.
The Metro's rules are strictly enforced. Spitting, a common habit of Northern Indian men, is forbidden. So is sitting on the floor, a habit from
Such rules chafe against the anything-goes chaos of urban life in
"People ask me, 'Why are you bothering me?' " he said on a recent afternoon as he cajoled a young rider to stand up, not squat on the floor. "But I tell them, 'The government has given us this nice facility. Why do you want to spoil it?' "
Mr. Sharma said he had to be strict in this crowded, hectic city.
"Small things add up to big things," he said. "If you ease up they will start spitting in the trains. They will sit on the floor and play cards. The whole system will become a mess."
Indeed, it remains to be seen if the Delhi Metro will remain as well-run as it is today, and whether its lessons can be applied elsewhere. Mr. Sreedharan recently had heart bypass surgery and is on extended medical leave, and he plans to retire once the Metro is completed later this year.
Hari Kumar contributed reporting.
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