Its only now that India has awakened to the challenge of Mass Rapid transport system especially with all the cities vying with one another to bring in metros. Given the fact that Calcutta was prudent enough to come up with one as early as the eighties, it is a shame that it took other cities a good 25 years to mull over the necessity of such facilities in other cities.
We are a 30-40 year behind in implementing such projects . China has superfast trains that run at 300 Km/hr whereas India still has to contend with the “ultra fast” Rajdhanis that with great difficulty manage to clock 100 km/hr.
While Indians are looking at metro’s and other energy intensive transport solutions, countries like France are moving to the bicycle era. The “Velo” program that encourages people to increasingly use cycles for commuting has seen huge success. Cycles are available at designated slots .People have to pay a reasonable fee, pick up the cycles , ride to their destinations and leave them there. Very convenient , non polluting and cheap. It is time India starts emulating such programs by taking a leaf out of such success stories.
