Danfoss Industries has partnered with the Kolkata Metro Rail Corp. (KMRC) and Chennai Metro Rail Ltd, (CMRL) to offer cutting-edge drive solutions of varying capacities, to enhance safety, comfort, energy efficiency, sustainability, and reliability of their networks.

Greater awareness about raising efficiencies and cutting down costs has gone up over the years as a wide range of technology-based solutions that allow accurate and quick decision-making is available now.

India's first metro rail public-private partnership (PPP), the Mumbai Metro One Private Ltd (MMOPL), was supposed to be the precursor for all such projects.

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are being encouraged in India's Metro Policy 2017 and this has opened up opportunities for the private sector, says Elias George, Partner and National Head, Infrastructure, Government and Healthcare at KPMG in India.

It was a sad story! But one filled with hope and optimism for the future. As per data shared by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, 441 infrastructure projects have incurred cost overruns of Rs 4.35 trillion due to various, but predominantly delay in implementation.

The disruption caused by the nationwide lockdown for the containment of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent workers’ exodus from cities back to their homes will result in technology playing an even bigger role in the execution of the metro rail projects, experts have said.

To increase ridership in metro rail network there is a need to develop a comprehensive mobility plan not only for the primary transport system but also for the secondary and tertiary system for first and last-mile connectivity and, therefore, the need for setting up of a unified metropolitan transport authority.

Until there is a realignment of development models, there is a high chance that the award of projects may remain muted for the current year as well. If that happens, India is likely to witness a dip in road capacity addition over subsequent years.

Shailesh Pathak, CEO, L&T Infrastructure Development Projects recommends that even as India moves towards becoming the world's third largest economy by the next decade, the infrastructure sector needs to focus on the timely execution of projects.