Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) trains are seen parked at a metro depot in New Delhi April 9, 2015.
NEW DELHI:
India's congested cities are awarding new rail projects at a record rate, creating a boon for companies such as Siemens to Larsen & Toubro Ltd in a sector forecast to offer $5.8 billion (around Rs 38,800 crore) worth of orders next year.
India currently has about 300 km of operational metro track laid across seven cities in a country with an urban population of 400 million, a network that is smaller than the size of London's Tube network which serves a city of nearly nine million.
In a bid to boost public transport, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government last week said it would boost the budget to expand the Delhi metro by almost a third on the previous year, as well as provide more funding for other state authorities.
Analysts at Axis Capital estimate India will award construction of 650 km of track worth 2 trillion rupees ($30 billion) over the next three to five years.
"The way metro rail boomed in China is about to happen in India," said Tilak Raj Seth, the head of Siemens India's transport business, which is supplying signalling and electricification for projects in Delhi and Chennai.
India's rush to build more metros is a late one: booming populations and rising car ownership have created traffic-choked cities, slowing movement of goods and people in the places where most of India's future economic growth will be made.
China has built metro rail networks in about 25 cities spanning more than 2,000 kilometres, largely in the last two decades, while India has barely managed 300 kilometres, most of it in Delhi, in 13 years.
It's a rate of construction India needs to quickly up as its urban areas are expected to become home to an additional 200 million people by 2030.
As well as the projects in 19 cities completed or approved, at least eight more cities including Patna and Agra, have drawn up plans - although experts caution at least some of the schemes will remain on paper.
Other cities have struggled. Mumbai, the second most densely populated city on earth, has managed to build just 11 kilometres of track in a decade, after problems acquiring land and contractual disputes. A new line in the southern tech hub of Bengaluru has missed a series of deadlines for completion.
India currently has about 300 km of operational metro track laid across seven cities in a country with an urban population of 400 million, a network that is smaller than the size of London's Tube network which serves a city of nearly nine million.
In a bid to boost public transport, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government last week said it would boost the budget to expand the Delhi metro by almost a third on the previous year, as well as provide more funding for other state authorities.
Analysts at Axis Capital estimate India will award construction of 650 km of track worth 2 trillion rupees ($30 billion) over the next three to five years.
"The way metro rail boomed in China is about to happen in India," said Tilak Raj Seth, the head of Siemens India's transport business, which is supplying signalling and electricification for projects in Delhi and Chennai.
India's rush to build more metros is a late one: booming populations and rising car ownership have created traffic-choked cities, slowing movement of goods and people in the places where most of India's future economic growth will be made.
China has built metro rail networks in about 25 cities spanning more than 2,000 kilometres, largely in the last two decades, while India has barely managed 300 kilometres, most of it in Delhi, in 13 years.
It's a rate of construction India needs to quickly up as its urban areas are expected to become home to an additional 200 million people by 2030.
As well as the projects in 19 cities completed or approved, at least eight more cities including Patna and Agra, have drawn up plans - although experts caution at least some of the schemes will remain on paper.
Other cities have struggled. Mumbai, the second most densely populated city on earth, has managed to build just 11 kilometres of track in a decade, after problems acquiring land and contractual disputes. A new line in the southern tech hub of Bengaluru has missed a series of deadlines for completion.
© Thomson Reuters 2016
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