India has four mega cities - Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi and Madras - each with a population of about 10 million and still growing. Apart from these cities there are 26 cities which have a population of 1 million or more. The four mega cities are served by extensive surface heavy rail urban transport systems with the system in Bombay carrying more than 5 million passengers daily. Only Calcutta has an underground system and work has just started on a mass transit system for Delhi. Planning studies for expanding the mass transit system in Bombay have been on for several years now. However there has been very little expansion of the system. The authors have been closely involved in the conceptualisation and studying the feasibility of providing a suitable rail based mass transit system for the Central Business District of Bombay. The institutional problems encountered and the approaches to resolve the various issues encountered is the basis of this paper.
Abstract