Moving a Billion People

The plan

1. One Metropolitan Transport Authority per city region. Every urban region of 10 lakh people or more (about 50 regions, estimate) gets one statutory authority under a state Act built on the Model Metropolitan Transport Authority Act.
   • Chair and members: the city CEO (Chapter 14) chairs; members are the heads of the metro company, the suburban rail zone, the state and city bus systems, traffic police, the development authority and the highways and airports bodies serving the region.
   • Powers: one mobility plan, one fare formula, one bus route network, parking prices, and one Urban Transport Fund. Every transport project in the region above ₹50 crore needs the authority's approval that it fits the plan.
   • Accountability: the authority publishes a monthly scorecard (Chapter 14): ridership on every line against forecast, average door-to-door travel time on 20 sample trips, bus punctuality, road deaths and the share of households within a 10-minute walk of a station.
2. One 100-year mobility plan per region, built in stages. The plan sits inside the city's 100-year growth frame (Chapter 20) and has the same three layers: a 100-year structure plan, a 20-year development plan and a 5-year works calendar. It covers metro, rapid rail, suburban rail, bus rapid transit and bus lanes, ring roads, expressway links, freight terminals and lines, airport links, parking, walking and cycling. It is drawn by certified planning firms at a published price per region (How the government buys), published for 30 days of public comment, adopted by the authority and loaded onto PM Gati Shakti.
3. Reserved corridors. Every future metro, rapid rail, ring road, expressway, freight and airport-link alignment, with land for its stations and depots, is mapped to a national width standard and recorded on every affected title in the land registry (Chapter 5), exactly as in Chapter 20. Owners keep any temporary use and receive market value or transfer of development rights when the corridor is built.
4. Sized for 100 years. The parts that are costly to change later (tunnels, viaducts, station boxes, platform length, depot land, interchange space and power supply routes) are designed for the 100-year peak-hour ridership in the structure plan. The parts that are easy to add (trains, coaches, signalling upgrades, escalators, fit-out) come in modules as ridership grows. A second independent consultancy checks every sizing before the first package is released.
5. One ticket and one fare.
   • From day 30, every new fare-collection contract in India accepts the National Common Mobility Card, UPI and bank cards.
   • Within 1 year, every metro, suburban train, city bus, ferry and public parking lot accepts them.
   • One regional fare is charged by distance across all modes, with a single clearing house per region paying each operator its share daily.
   • Timetables and live vehicle positions are published as open data, so any app can plan a journey.
6. Feeders, walking and cycling. Each station serves a catchment of at least 5 km, as the 2017 metro policy already asks. Electric feeder buses run on per-km contracts (Chapter 19). Every street within 1 km of a station gets continuous footpaths at least 2 m wide, safe crossings at least every 250 m, cycle lanes and cycle parking.
7. A railway backbone.
   • Freight: the 2,843 km of dedicated freight corridors get feeder lines and terminals at the rate card, and further freight corridors are planned on the busiest freight routes.
   • Capacity on saturated routes: the high-density network sections running above 150% of line capacity (about 1,560 km) are cut into third and fourth line packages in the first 30 days and claimed within 1 year; the rest of the network above 100% follows.
   • High speed and semi-high speed: Mumbai to Ahmedabad is finished as planned; further city pairs are chosen on published ridership and cost tests, with 160 to 180 km an hour rapid rail, as on Delhi to Meerut, for pairs closer together.
   • Stations: the 1,337 Amrit Bharat stations become multimodal hubs, with air rights over tracks and spare railway land sold by open e-auction.
   • Operations: private train operators run passenger and freight services on published track-access charges.
8. Roads as a grid. Every region gets a ring road and access-controlled expressway links on reserved corridors. Through traffic and freight use the ring; city arterials carry bus lanes or bus rapid transit where bus volumes justify them. Tolls on expressways are a published price for the service. Every new or rebuilt urban arterial follows a complete-streets standard: footpaths, cycle lanes, safe crossings and bus stops.
9. Every airport linked to its city. Within 1 year, a rail or metro corridor from each of India's 160 airports to its city centre or nearest main station is reserved. Links are built first where passenger numbers are highest, and every new airport opens with its link. Airport, rail and metro are planned together so that a passenger checks in once, with luggage drop at the city station where traffic justifies it.
10. Homes near stations and land that pays for the line.
    • Plots within 500 m of a metro or rapid rail station may build up to 5 times their area once pipes and roads are certified (Chapter 9).
    • Development rights over stations and depots, and on public land along each new line, are sold by open e-auction to certified developers, above a reserve set by three independent valuers.
    • Proceeds go into the line's own account, published station by station, and pay for building and renewing transit. The 0.4% property tax stays as it is; no new levy is added.
11. Who builds and who runs. Every line, road and station is built at the national rate card by certified builders who post a bond upfront and are paid after independent inspection, with a 10-year warranty (Chapter 20). Trains and buses are run by private operators on performance contracts, paid per verified kilometre or for availability, with punctuality and cleanliness published every month.

Cost and return

• Who pays, overall: riders pay fares and tolls as the price of service; land pays through development rights sold by e-auction; central and state capital budgets pay the rest at the national rate card; private operators finance trains and buses under per-km contracts. There is no new cess and no subsidy. Families under the income test are helped only by the one cash transfer (Chapter 23).
• Land value target (estimate): development rights pay at least a third of the building cost of each new metro or rapid rail line. Hong Kong's MTR shows the scale: property development brought it HK$10.2 billion of profit in Hong Kong in 2024.
• Return from time (estimate): congestion costs four cities about ₹1.44 lakh crore a year; cutting that by a quarter returns about ₹36,000 crore a year.
• Return from lives (estimate): each 10% fall in road deaths saves about 17,000 lives a year, from more than 1.7 lakh deaths in 2023.
• Return from freight: rail carries about 27% of freight today; moving towards the National Rail Plan's 45% cuts logistics costs for every factory and farm.

Timeline

First 30 days:

• Publish the Model Metropolitan Transport Authority Act, with 20% of central urban transport grants tied to adoption.
• Make the National Common Mobility Card, UPI and bank cards a condition of every new fare-collection contract.
• Load every region's existing roads, rail, bus and airport layers onto PM Gati Shakti.
• Publish the list of airport-link corridors for all 160 airports.
• Add metro tunnel, viaduct, station box, rail track and bus-lane items to the national rate card.
• Cut the high-density rail sections above 150% of capacity into work packages.

Within 1 year:

• A working authority in every region of 10 lakh or more, with an adopted 100-year mobility plan and corridors recorded on titles.
• One tap pays on every metro, suburban train and city bus.
• The first e-auctions of station development rights held in at least 10 regions.
• Every saturated-route rail package claimed and under way; every airport-link corridor reserved.
• Bus lanes on the busiest arterials of every region, and complete-streets standards in force for all new urban roads.

Outcomes after year 1: the full Mumbai to Ahmedabad high-speed line by its current December 2029 target; ridership on every line rising each year towards forecast; rail's share of freight rising towards 45%; road deaths falling every year; by year 15, 8 in 10 households in the largest cities within a 10-minute walk of a station.

Guardrails

• Corridors: any permanent structure on a reserved corridor is removed at the builder's cost, and the official who approved it loses office. Owners are paid market value or transfer of development rights within 30 days of the corridor being needed.
• Sizing: no civil package is released until a second independent consultancy confirms it meets the 100-year peak-hour design.
• Forecasts: every line publishes monthly ridership against its project report. A line below 60% of forecast for a full year gets an independent review of feeders, fares and housing, published within 30 days. A forecasting firm whose forecasts miss by more than half on two lines loses certification for 3 years.
• Land value: development rights are sold only by open e-auction above a reserve set by three independent valuers. Proceeds stay in the line's account, are published every quarter and are used only for building and renewing transit.
• Fares: set by a published formula tied to costs, changed once a year, reviewed by an independent fare committee.
• Operators: an operator below 95% punctuality for 3 months in a row pays a published service charge from its bond, and loses the contract to the next certified operator after 6 months.
• Safe streets: footpaths at least 2 m wide and safe crossings at least every 250 m on every new or rebuilt urban arterial; every listed crash black spot fixed within 1 year, with progress published.

Legal route

• States: city roads, buses and urban planning sit with states and cities. Each state adopts a Metropolitan Transport Authority Act built on the Model Act (the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs already has draft authority Bills), linked to central urban grants. The 2017 Metro Rail Policy already asks states seeking central help to set up such an authority within a year and to adopt value capture and transit-oriented development.
• Centre: railways, national highways and airports are central subjects. The Railways Act 1989, the Metro Railways (Construction of Works) Act 1978, the Metro Railways (Operation and Maintenance) Act 2002, the National Highways Act 1956 and the Airports Authority of India Act 1994 cover corridors, stations and airport links from day one.
• Land: corridors are recorded on titles through the land registry (Chapter 5) and acquired when needed under the 2013 land acquisition law at market value, or paid through transfer of development rights.
• Payments: the one-tap fare runs on the existing National Common Mobility Card standard under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act 2007.

Limits to know

• Forecasts often run high. Most Indian metro systems carry 25% to 35% of their projected riders, and the Delhi Airport Express drew about 20,000 riders a day at first against 42,000 projected. Plans need honest forecasts and strong feeders from the start.
• Private concessions need a clear split of risk. The private concessionaire of the Delhi Airport Express handed the line back to Delhi Metro in 2013 after structural problems. Certified builders at the rate card, with bonds and warranties, and private operators on service contracts keep each risk with the party that can manage it.
• Value capture rises and falls with property markets. Development rights sell for more in large, growing cities and in good years, so smaller regions will rely more on capital budgets.
• High-speed rail is costly. At about ₹213 crore per km (estimate), it suits only the densest city pairs; the first section of Mumbai to Ahmedabad is expected to open in August 2027, years after its first target.
• States give up some control. Many regions have authorities on paper with little power; the Act and the grants have to make the authority the one owner of the plan.
• Corridors in built-up areas are expensive. Reserving them now is cheapest; where a city is already dense, tunnels and elevated lines cost more.

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