New Delhi: The central government is putting more and more emphasis on increasing the scope of metro services to improve the infrastructure of public transport. As a vision for the next five years, there are plans to take metro to 31 cities. Currently this number is 21. Despite the metro being an expensive option, it is being considered a permanent and reliable way considering the future needs.

Considering the speed at which the population is increasing in cities, it is very important to strengthen public transport. According to the officials of the Ministry of Urban Affairs, the most emphasis is on improving public transport in cities, because as the population in cities is increasing, the movement of people is also increasing rapidly. Keeping this in mind, a plan has been made to lay a metro line of about two thousand kilometers.

India's metro can make a record in length

Approval of metro projects of about 150 km in one go in Chennai is a part of this series. In the next five years, India can become the third largest country in the world after America and China in terms of metro length.

At present, Metro is operational or under construction in NCR, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Agra, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhopal, Kanpur, Hyderabad, Kochi, Lucknow, Meerut, Pune, Patna, Navi Mumbai, Nagpur and Surat. Apart from this, discussions are going on to bring Bhubaneswar, Gorakhpur, Kozhikode, Nashik, Trivandrum, Rajkot, Aurangabad, Jammu and Srinagar and Guwahati under the ambit of Metro.

Plan to run e-buses in more than 160 cities

Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have also sent proposals for metro services in their cities-Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Warangal. The metro proposals also include Varanasi's application, on which work can start soon. For road transport, the biggest means of public transport, the central government is working on a plan to run twenty thousand PM e-buses in more than 160 cities, but so far only the proposals of the states have been finalized in this matter.

Government's emphasis on electric vehicles

When asked about this, the official said that this is a big plan. For this, tenders have been invited in many cities, so there should be no delay in it. The government is focusing on the use of electric means for transport. In the next five years, the number of city buses will reach 65 thousand, which is less than 40 thousand right now. Our effort is that more than 35 percent of public transport should come on electric mode. This will significantly reduce pollution in cities.