Serving about 7 million passengers per day in the world’s most populous urban conglomeration, Tokyo Metro stands out for a seamless transport network spanning 195 km with nine lines.

During a recent visit to Japan, I experienced the top quality infrastructure in Tokyo, and its people, known for their punctuality, felt it might not have been possible but for Tokyo Metro and its seamless interconnection with other modes of transport, rail, bus, and to airports.

As someone tracking the progress of Hyderabad metro from planning stage, which recently commissioned its operations, it will be wonderful to see it transform to something similar to its Tokyo counterpart.

Just a baby

While Tokyo metro is about 90 years old, the city metro is a two-week- old baby, and it is not fair to compare the two.

It will be great if the Telangana Government, Hyderabad metro and concessionaire L&T work in tandem to transform it to make it seamless for people, providing last-mile connectivity. The related infrastructure for the metro will be overground here, while it is all underground in Tokyo. The near 200-km-long metro network is backed by other modes of transport, and one cannot think of anything but metro for personal transport. This gives predictability of time, and ensures punctuality.

While it will take 12-15 months for the elevated metro to complete the work on the remaining part of the 72-km three-corridor network in Hyderabad, barring 6 km in old city, the related metro infrastructure development will be central to its success.

For instance, in Tokyo one can walk for kilometres without any hassles as the city footpaths make it comfortable. But at home, this needs to change at least by the time the metro gets fully commissioned. One has to struggle to even walk a furlong without being obstructed by vehicles parked on footpaths and hawkers encroaching them or electrical transformers obstructing the pathway.

Last mile

Second, the last mile connectivity needs to be developed where one can use different modes of transport with a common smart card.

From a social perspective, no one in Japan is seen using a mobile phone for telephony publicly and in metro and other stations. They simply text or chat. Can we emulate this? The other striking thing is about the queue system and the approach to keeping left even while walking. Perhaps, this has been made possible as they are sure about their turns without much delay due to the predictability and punctuality of services.

Next level experience

Tokyo Metro is taking metro experience to the next level by testing an app for pregnant women who can be provided a seat. Ahead of times, it prohibited smoking in the year 1988 itself before others in the world.

Can one think about London, Tokyo, Hong Kong or Delhi without a metro? Will Hyderabad be one like them? Being the latest, Hyderabad can bring this change like its peers.

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