Moving a Billion People

The idea

Anjali lives in Meerut and works in Delhi. Since February 2026 her 82 km commute on Namo Bharat rapid rail takes about 55 minutes. By road, the same trip often took far longer.

Now picture her whole day that way. She walks five minutes to the station on a shaded footpath. One tap of her phone pays for the rapid rail, the metro and the electric bus to her office gate. Her rented flat sits in a tower near the station that helped pay for the line. On Friday her father takes the metro from her station straight to the airport and flies home to Lucknow.

I believe mobility is the hidden engine of a developed country. When people reach work in 45 minutes instead of two hours, the job market grows, homes get cheaper and the air gets cleaner. The trick is to treat roads, metros, railways and airports as one network for one city region, plan it for our great-grandchildren's city, and build it in stages as riders arrive. Chapter 20 keeps the corridors free. This chapter fills them.

Why now

Our metros are growing fast. We went from 248 km of metro in 5 cities in 2014 to nearly 1,200 km in 26 cities today. The next prize is riders: most lines carry only 25% to 35% of their projected riders, a gap that feeders, one ticket and homes near stations can close.

Time stuck in traffic is money waiting to be earned. Congestion costs Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata about ₹1.44 lakh crore a year.

Our railways are ready for their next leap. The busiest 16% of track carries 41% of rail traffic, and three-quarters of it runs above rated capacity.

Safer roads give lives back. More than 1.7 lakh people died on our roads in 2023, and safe streets and good public transport bring that number down.

And the skies are opening. India has gone from 74 airports in 2014 to 160, with a goal of 350 to 400 by 2047. Reserving each rail link now, while the land is free, costs far less than later.

The big moves

Here is the path I see, one step after another.

1. First, one authority and one plan for each metro region. A Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority has been national policy since 2006. We give it real power: one body per city region of 10 lakh people or more, chaired by the city CEO (Chapter 14), owning one plan, one fare system and one budget for metro, suburban rail, buses, main roads, parking, walking and cycling, all on the PM Gati Shakti map.

2. Next, reserve the corridors for 100 years and build in stages. Within each 100-year city plan (Chapter 20), the authority marks metro, rapid rail, ring road, expressway, freight and airport-link corridors now, records them on titles, and pays owners fairly when each is built. Stations, viaducts and depots are sized for the century's riders, since a longer platform costs little now. Trains are added as riders arrive.

3. Then, one ticket for every mode and a bus at every station. The National Common Mobility Card and UPI work on every metro, suburban train, city bus, ferry and parking lot, with one fare across a journey that changes modes. Electric feeder buses (Chapter 19) run from every station on published timetables, and safe footpaths and cycle lanes lead to its gates.

4. Alongside, a railway backbone and roads that work as a grid. Freight moves to dedicated corridors and extra tracks on the busiest routes, freeing room for passenger trains. High-speed and semi-high-speed rail link busy city pairs, starting with Mumbai to Ahmedabad, and big stations become city centres. An expressway grid and a ring road around each metro region carry through traffic, while bus lanes and protected footpaths and cycle lanes keep city streets safe. Every airport links to its city centre by rail or metro, and every new airport opens with its link.

5. Finally, let homes rise near stations and let the land pay for the line. Plots near stations can build taller once pipes and roads are ready (Chapter 9). Development rights over stations, depots and public land along each line are sold by open e-auction, and the money goes into building the line, the way Hong Kong and Tokyo do it. Lines are built at the national rate card by certified builders who post a bond (Chapter 20), and private operators run them on clear service contracts.

Today vs the new way

Here is how a region planned this way compares with today.

Cities gain hours and lives, and the land the lines make valuable pays much of the bill.

Proof it works

Tokyo runs on rail. Trains carry about 48% of all trips in Tokyo's 23 central wards. Its private railways built towns around their stations and reinvested the property profits in the lines.

Hong Kong lets the land pay. The government grants MTR development rights at stations, priced at their value without the railway. MTR builds the line, shares the profit from the buildings above, and runs 99.9% of trains on time.

Shanghai shows the speed of a plan. Its first metro line opened in 1993. About 30 years later the network runs to over 800 km and carries about 1 crore riders a day, roughly what all of India's metros carry together today.

Singapore plans as one. One Land Transport Authority plans its roads, rail and buses together under a long-term master plan. By the 2030s, 8 in 10 households will live within a 10-minute walk of a train station.

India is already doing it. Delhi Metro carried 235.8 crore journeys in 2025, and our freight corridors run about 426 trains a day at roughly double the old freight speed.

What success looks like

• In the first 30 days: a Model Metropolitan Transport Authority Act is offered to every state, every metro region's mobility layer is on PM Gati Shakti, and the list of airport-link corridors is published.
• Within 1 year: every city region of 10 lakh or more has a working authority and a 100-year mobility plan, with corridors on titles; one tap pays for every metro, suburban train and city bus; and the first station development rights are sold by e-auction.
• After year 1: metro ridership rises every year towards plan, rail carries a growing share of freight towards the National Rail Plan's 45%, and road deaths fall every year on Europe's path: halved by year 10, the EU's own goal for 2030, on the way to Vision Zero.
• By year 15: in our largest cities, 8 in 10 households live within a 10-minute walk of a metro or rail station.

Guardrail ideas

Ideas to start the conversation, for the builders, experts and the public to shape together.

• Corridors stay free, owners are paid fairly. Every reserved corridor is recorded on the land registry title, the owner keeps any temporary use, and is paid market value or transfer of development rights within 30 days of the corridor being needed.
• Lines are sized once, for the century. Every new station box, platform, viaduct and depot is designed for the 100-year peak ridership in the plan, checked by a second independent consultancy before work starts.
• Riders get what was promised. Each line publishes monthly ridership against its forecast, and a line below 60% for a full year gets an independent review, published within 30 days.
• Land value stays with the line. Development rights are sold only by open e-auction above a reserve set by three independent valuers, and every rupee goes into the line's public account, station by station.
• Streets are safe for every walker. Every new or rebuilt urban main road has footpaths at least 2 metres wide and a safe crossing at least every 250 metres, and every listed crash black spot is fixed within 1 year, with progress published.

FAQs

Q: Will fares rise beyond the reach of poor families?

A: Every family gains a faster trip at a fair, published price. Fares cover running costs and land value pays much of the building. Families under the income test receive the one cash transfer (Chapter 23) and spend it as they choose.

Q: Isn't it wasteful to build stations for riders who come in 50 years?

A: It saves money. The digging and the land are most of the cost, and a longer platform or a bigger station box adds only a little. Trains and coaches, the expensive moving parts, are added only as riders arrive.

Q: City transport belongs to states. How does one authority come about?

A: Every state gains from joining. The 2017 metro policy already ties central help to these authorities, a Model Act linked to central urban grants gives each state a template, and central powers over railways, highways and airports start work on day one.

The detailed blueprint for this chapter, a starting draft for the mission heads, industry and the private sector to refine, is in the Implementation Annex.