Haryana metro - Badarpur-Faridabad

[Soumitra]

Helicopter? Forget it. PM Modi Takes the Metro

NEW DELHI: The commuters of the Delhi Metro were taken completely by surprise this morning, when a high-profile co-passenger entered the very first train leaving Janpath -- Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In what is fast becoming a hallmark of PM Modi, it seems he took a spontaneous decision to sample the metro services. Shelving plans to take a chopper, he boarded the Metro from the heart of Delhi -- which he inaugurated minutes before.


The schedule said he was to take a helicopter to the Civil Court Grounds of Faridabad, in neighbouring Haryana, where he was to flag-off the down train.

While most commuters took time to get over the surprise, some had enough presence of mind to queue up for selfies with the Prime Minister. PM Modi smilingly obliged, exchanged pleasantries with passengers and even played with a small baby.

The Delhi-Faridabad line has been thrown open to the public at 4 pm today. Nine stations have been built along the track which extends almost 14 km into Faridabad.

With a population of 18 lakh, Faridabad, which has entered the government's recent list of would-be smart cities, has lagged behind Gurgaon and other Haryana cities in development.

The state government has pinned its hopes on the metro to give a boost to city. More than 2 lakh people are expected to travel on the route daily.

 

[Bullet500]

Bhai...Bangaloreans busted congress azz big time in local body elections...they know they will be voted out of power in next state elections... this Staling of projects and other civil works is their payback to Bangalore wallahs...

Bro such projects should be nationalized and implemented on priority. State governments will always play politics...stall projects and demand money.

 

[egodoc222]

Bhai I don't know how old you are, but I have been hearing "its coming" from my college days in the early 90s.

And still they cannot decide what form of Metro to have, under, over, mono, etc. etc.

Vizag will get one before pune

 

[Nilgiri]

I know he likes to mingle with the crowds, but is that safe though? In fact, I even read somewhere that people who were watching him ride Metro on live TV, had even taken positions on rooftops along the Metro line to 'greet' him!

It is not just this Metro ride, but he has been regularly violating his own security cordon to meet people even outside India (Bhutan and Nepal come to mind). I know it is a noble thought to mix with people but I think he has far more responsibilities to fulfill as a PM than to take completely avoidable chances like these.

Considering that he faces a particularly high level of threats and any attempt on his life could plunge the whole region into chaos or war.

I understand your concern, but SPG is professional organisation and they have learnt their lesson since both I.G and Rajiv.

On the train you can see they are actively monitoring/controlling the process of coming up to the PM immediate vicinity.

We cannot force Modi to be something he is not. He will always be most at ease with common day to day folk...I think that was part of the reason they kept all of this a suprise till the last moment.

I am sure undercover SPG were closely monitoring any roof top vantage points too.

They have received specialist training in Israel and US and have formulated specific protocols for within India. Modi is in safe hands, need not be worried.

 

[Post Colonnial]

What's this frequent metro opening craze! Look at the London Underground - for a century it's been pushing people near flawlessly (except when some jihadi nutjob decides to explode a bomb in there). When is India going to learn to run the suburban train services better - such as closing the doors in all trains so people don't hang on by toothnail and fall of like flies?

 

[Nilgiri]

When is India going to learn to run the suburban train services better - such as closing the doors in all trains so people don't hang on by toothnail and fall of like flies?

For that we need:

1. Higher supply and capacity

2. Education and higher self worth of life

These 2 will come in the coming years at various rates. The ball has started to accelerate with Modi....let us hope it highs a good cruise phase for a good long time.

Metros are being run quite professionally. Suburban railways will need to be reformed, invested and improved. Please give Suresh Prabhu some more time....he has just started....but he is a diligent smart man who has done much already.

 

[Post Colonnial]

For that we need:

1. Higher supply and capacity

2. Education and higher self worth of life

These 2 will come in the coming years at various rates. The ball has started to accelerate with Modi....let us hope it highs a good cruise phase for a good long time.

Metros are being run quite professionally. Suburban railways will need to be reformed, invested and improved. Please give Suresh Prabhu some more time....he has just started....but he is a diligent smart man who has done much already.

I agree BUT it doesn't take much to close doors. If you look up conjested Japanese suburban trains they used have pushers who pushed people in so the doors can close. Once the public realize the train won't move until the doors close, they start waiting for the next one. It is crazy beyond civilization to see 20 people hanging OUTSIDE each doorway,some many times hanging on to not any part of the train but other passengers!

 

[Nilgiri]

It is crazy beyond civilization to see 20 people hanging OUTSIDE each doorway,some many times hanging on to not any part of the train but other passengers!

I agree somewhat with your reasoning...also disagree somewhat.

From purely economic standpoint, forcibly restricting the amount the train carries at peak rush hour means you are inherently making the system more inefficient. Basically Indians are the experts at extracting every bit of margin and buffer from a system, aesthetics and safety be darned (because no one really cares enough yet). It is jugaad in action.

Suburban railways need to basically pump up the capacity before it can start enforcing the door restriction (without adversely affecting the basic raw economics of the whole operation). Trains like the ones found in Paris RER:

India makes such double decker coaches already.....what is needed is the proper investment to improve the suburban railway capability so it can handle such trains. Then with the closing doors, you have addressed the capacity problem and safety problem in one fell stroke.

 

[Abingdonboy]

I know he likes to mingle with the crowds, but is that safe though? In fact, I even read somewhere that people who were watching him ride Metro on live TV, had even taken positions on rooftops along the Metro line to 'greet' him!

It is not just this Metro ride, but he has been regularly violating his own security cordon to meet people even outside India (Bhutan and Nepal come to mind). I know it is a noble thought to mix with people but I think he has far more responsibilities to fulfill as a PM than to take completely avoidable chances like these.

Considering that he faces a particularly high level of threats and any attempt on his life could plunge the whole region into chaos or war.

@Abingdonboy

Whilst it appears the PM is in a vulnerable position the reality is he is anything but.

1) Just to get into the DM network a person is frisked, their belongings x-rayed and they have to walk through a metal detector as per the CISF's cover. No doubt that with the PM carrying out this ride the SPG would have added additional layers of frisking and threat mitigation along the entire length of the route Modi rode on.
2) The SPG presence on that train is HUGE, you can see that when the train pulls into the final destination and the PM a lot of SPG personal getting off with him. You can also see SPG personal deployed at every entrance (on both sides) along the entire length of the train. The SPG created a sanitised box (the "bubble" as the US SS calls it) around the PM despite the presence of civilians on the train also as they do no matter where he goes.
3) You can also see that those passengers who wanted to interact with the PM had to go through further screening by the SPG personal to be allowed into this sanitised box around the PM and that too only a few were allowed at any one time.
4) the entire route would have been sanitised by advanced SPG teams prior to this journey and they would have taken account of overlooking buildings and such.
5) The PM's motorcade would have been moving parallel to the train at all times just in case the PM needed to "bug out"

As with a swan, everything may seem serene on the surface but there is a LOT going on in the background.


There is always a risk to the Indian PM no matter who he is, here he goes or what he does, Modi simply has a heightened risk profile AND likes to conduct these (IMHO foolish) stunts.