Sunday, October 09, 2011

Lucknow Metro: Don't mind if it is needed or not!

There was a 'Bhoomi Poojan' ceremony of a new upcoming township with 'modern amenities like club house, restaurant, gym' and 'just 15 minutes from proposed Metro station'.

Well I won't blame you if you didn't know about Metro rail being proposed in Lucknow. Like every middle class Indian once aspired to own a Maruti 800, every state capital aspires to have a Metro of its own and believes it has really good reasons to have one. Lucknow is one of them. Kochi, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Kanpur are few others.

I don't know the reasons they are pushing to pass Lucknow Metro as an inevitable mean to solve Lucknow's traffic problems but whatever and however flimsy they are, I know they are not going to be challenged. Even though more than half of the city's road remain encroached, causing massive traffic snarls and traffic police appears only at few VIP junctions and no alternatives are suggested to this massively expensive option, Lucknowites are made to believe that Metro is their only savior.

Unlike Delhi or Bangalore or Hyderabad where there have been debates over viability and necessity of Metro and how the construction will affect the city's heritage and existing transportation mechanisms and commuting patterns, there is going to be no voice asking questioning anything that is going to be fed to press (that is under the thumb of the Government anyway!).

I don't blame the people. Any announcement that is 'perceived' to be related to 'development' is lapped up by people who are hungry to see any kind of development. So much that even if it means massive amount of money that is going to be swindled (and which is perhaps the only reason for some of these projects!) or cause damage to environment is accepted without any murmur. Any protest, if ever, takes place only if the development is hurting their own interests in any manner.

Secondly, Delhi is the ultimate role model for Lucknow and any thing that Delhi has, seems to be a must-have for Lucknowites! Even if Lucknow is just a fraction of Delhi in terms of population and area, they must have a Metro.

Also the fact that there is hardly any interface which promotes dialogue and partnership among people and Government over the issues that concern the city, is a major reason that no discussion or debate ever takes place.

So whenever Lucknow Metro materializes and at whatever costs, both tangible and intangible in terms of cost to heritage and environment, no one will mind it.

2 comments:

@nkur said...

At some point in time it will be needed, so i'd welcome the plan. However, i do know that any project like this is an opportunity for contractors and babus to fill their coffers for 10-20 years on.
It is also questionable as to if this project is more important than fixing power and road connectivity to other parts of the state...

Anonymous said...

Don't be jealous friend's because Lucknow is the capital of Largest State in the world by it's population and the population around Lucknow in the radius of 50 Km is approximately 2.5 Crores which is much larger than Delhi area.Due to the close proximity to state capital all these surrounded population is migrating to Lucknow in search of better living resulting the Lucknow's growth rate is much faster than Delhi in terms of population.After 10 years the population of Lucknow center alone will be 60 Lakhs. If we start building Metro now it will take minimum 10 years to complete.So we will have metro at the peak level of population.Delhi metro was late arrival.Delhi should have metro before 10 years when the metro started running there.So be happy.Don't be jealous.Lucknow's development is faster and will take the size of a Mega Metro City with better facilities than any other city in India.This is not the dream.This is the happening which we see in Lucknow is last 10 years.I think Lucknow is going to beat many cities specially in North India in terms of Urban Infrastructure, Technology, Job creation, reals estate and education.I think we should be more happy that we are going to have another city Like Mumbai and Delhi in north India for our youths of India to get more jobs opportunity.