Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri enumerated the advances made in urban metro transportation over the last decade as he spoke to a group of ex-judges, retired military officers and other stakeholders. He hinted that before two and a half years elapse, India would have the world’s second largest urban metro rail system.
Minister Puri mentioned that Delhi Metro was doing commendably well by providing service to 73 lakh passengers riding in its train every day while reducing traffic congestion resulting from excessive numbers of city dwellers.
He delved into advancements in the criminal justice system and police modernisation under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s guidance.
Speaking to at the gathering, Hardeep Puri said, “In today’s day, the fact that needs to be reiterated is that there are 1 crore people riding on the metro every day, and out of the 1 crore people, 73 lakh are the ridership of the capital region of Delhi.”
“Today, even though the population of the city is expanding massively, it is still easy to get from one part of the city to the other within a reasonable period of time. More people are taking to urban transport,” he said.
“Today we have 945 kilometres of metro system functioning in the country, and we have another 1,000 under construction. This will be done in the next two and a half years, and we will have the world’s second-largest urban transport metro,” said Puri.
Adding further, he said, “Who would have thought of it when Vajpayee ji started this metro system back in 2002?”
The Union Minister also spoke about the criminal justice system and modernisation efforts within the police force, stressing on the strides taken in the past decade under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Former Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi also spoke on the eve and praised Prime Minister Modi’s government for encouraging “out of the box thinking.”
He also spoke on the expansion of the Delhi Metro and said, “There used to be a lot of 1970’s traffic indiscipline and jams back then in the 1970s. The way the Delhi metro has been expanding under the central government is commendable.”
Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri later added that the interaction went beyond the developments made in the last 10 years and the subject of the metro system expansion in the country.