[Reader-list] Delhi Metro: The change is showing, and how

[Shivam]

Here is a very basic, indifferent newspaper feature on something that
the papers have not been documenting: the vast cultural change that
the Delhi Metro will bring about in the daily life of Delhi.
Shivam



  Delhi Metro: The change is showing, and how 

  Chetan Chauhan
  Hindustan Times | New Delhi, October 11 
  http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/5922_1051129,0015002200000001.htm

 
Shefali Gupta, a student of Laxmibai College in Ashok Vihar, Umesh
Aggarwal, an Azad Market-based wholesale trader and Ushfak Amin, a
worker in Ballimaran, have little in common, except for the fact that
the Metro has changed their lives.

Shefali no longer has to suffer a private bus. She takes the Metro
from Pitampura till Keshavpuram. "It is the most comfortable change in
my life. There are no lewd comments or people brushing against you,"
she says, while returning from her college.

It used to take Umesh over an hour to reach his shop from his home in
sector-9 Rohini. "Time was not the only worrying factor. The entire
route used to be congested and the drive used to be tiring," he says.
Now, he reaches Azad Market in half-an-hour and that too without any
hassles. "I drive a couple of kilometres to reach Rohini-West metro
station and park my car there," he says.

For Ushfak, his daily cycle journey is a thing of the past. And he is
not alone. "Many prefer Metro over the cycle even though it is a
costly affair," he says. All this is visible on the first metro
corridor between Shahdara and Rithala within a year of the line
becoming operational.

Delhi Metro Rail Corporation officials say they intend to bring in
discipline and make people believe that metro will be the city's
lifeline. "Security guards will be reduced once riders get accustomed
to the system," an official said.