Success Stories of Urban Rail in India and Southeast Asia

UITP India successfully completed the 6^th UITP Urban Rail Seminar 2023 – Success stories of India and Southeast Asia. The flagship event was hosted by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) in New Delhi on 2 and 3 March 2023. Supporting sponsor SYSTRA and media partners Rail Analysis, Urban Transport News, Metro Rail Today and Metro Rail & Steel supported the event.

More than 200 participants joined the seminar in Delhi, including representatives from 15 urban rail organisations across the country and several significant stakeholders involved in India’s urban rail sector. The event had 26 key national and international speakers from key metro organisations such as DMRC, Ministry of Railways, L&T Metro Rail Hyderabad, National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC), Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL), UITP Asia Pacific, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL), East Japan Railway Company, Kochi Metro Rail Ltd (KMRL), Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (Maha-Metro), Delhi Integrated Multimodal Transit System (DIMTS) Ltd., Asian Development Bank (ADB), Systra and Keolis Hyderabad MRTS.

The event kicked off with the inaugural session opening remarks given by Mr Shaun Tan, Head of UITP Asia Pacific region with a brief introduction on the growth of metro rail systems in India and Southeast Asia. The opening remarks were followed by a welcome address by Mr Vikas Kumar, the Managing Director of DMRC. He emphasised how efficient transportation systems make cities the growth engines of the country, and the need of the hour is robust tailor-made transport system which are space saving, low emissions solutions and efficient in the long term.

This was followed by the inaugural address by the Guest of Honour, Mr Ashish Kundra, IAS, Principal Secretary and Commissioner of Transport, Government of NCT of Delhi. He stressed the need for integrated public transportation in cities running in synergy with one another rather than operating in silos.

Ms Jaya Varma Sinha, Member Operations and Business Development, Railway Board, Ministry of Railway gave the key note address and highlighted the latest developments in the metro rail systems, and the factors contributing to the growth story of the Indian metro rail. Ms Rupa Nandy, Head, UITP India ended the inaugural session with vote of thanks.

The plenary session chaired by Mr Shaun Tan, was an interactive session with panelists elaborating on the roadmap for urban rail systems in India. The panel members included Mr Vinay Kumar Singh, IRSE, MD, NCRTC,  Mr MA Siddique, IAS, MD, CMRL,  Mr Sudhir Chiplunkar, COO, L&T Metro Hyderabad, and Ms Divya Hosur, GM, (SEMU), BMRCL. The session witnessed a brief discussion on the innovative practices of urban rail in different cities and how they overcame the challenges cities have faced over the years in planning and operating metro systems in the country.

The key highlights of the seminar were the four technical sessions on digitalisation, station design, sustainability and rail asset management in urban rail operations. Key national and international speakers from different organisations came together on the single platform to share their experience and initiatives in the metro rail sector.

The first session moderated by Ms Manjari Shrivastava, Assistant Coordinator, I-metro, was on Digitalization in Urban Rail. The session witnessed discussion on evaluating innovations in signalling and beyond in Delhi metro rail operations, cyber security in rail industry, fare integration between metros and buses with case studies from DIMTS and DMRC, and the digital initiatives of Bangalore metro.

The second technical session moderated by Ms Daria Kuzmina, Rail Unit, Knowledge and Innovation, UITP, was on the Station Design and Functions Trends. The session saw discussion on UITP projects on stations, user accessibility and women’s safety in stations, experience of East Japan Railway in station design and building future rail and urban mobility in ADB projects.

The third technical session on Sustainability in Urban Rail Operation, moderated by Mr Keshav Kumar, VP, Systems and Operation, SYSTRA had interesting presentations focusing on key initiatives in green energy and solar by Delhi metro corporation and Kochi metro experience of renewables.

The concluding technical session moderated by Ms Ira Gupta, Advisory Services Lead, ARUP included discussion on the cost optimization initiatives of Mahametro, rail asset management and asset management examples from Southeast Asia.

The seminar concluded on the second day with a technical visit organised by DMRC for understanding DMRC’s rail ecosystem. The participants took the ride in the Delhi metro on the violet and the fully automated pink line, followed by a visit to the Delhi Metro Rail Academy.

We would like to thank our sponsors, partners, speakers, and attendees who despite their busy schedules made the seminar such a success.

UITP India has compiled and published key takeaways and discussions of the UITP Urban Rail Seminar 2023 in a report.

Read the wrap up report – UITP Urban Rail Seminar Report 2023

Presentations of the seminar are available to registered participants and UITP members on MY LIBRARY