SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC BENEFITS DUE TO NOIDA, GREATER NOIDA METRO

Abstract

The growing demand for public transport in mega cities has serious effects on urban ecosystems, especially
due to increased atmospheric pollution and changes in land use patterns. An ecologically sustainable urban transport
system could be obtained by an appropriate mix of alternative modes of transport resulting in the use of environment
friendly fuels and land use patterns. The introduction of CNG in certain vehicles and switching of some portion of the
transport demand to the Metro rail have resulted in a significant reduction in air pollution, time saving to passengers,
reduction in accidents, reduction in traffic congestion and fuel saving. There are incremental benefits and costs to a
number of economic agents: government, private transporters, passengers, general public and unskilled labour. The
social cost-benefit analysis of Noida-Greater Noida Metro done in this report tries to measure all these benefits and
costs across 22 stations, covering a total distance of ~30 kms from Noida to Greater Noida. Estimates of the social
benefits and cost of the project are obtained using the recently estimated shadow prices of investment, foreign
exchange and unskilled labour as well as the social time preference rate for the Indian economy for a study
commissioned by the Planning Commission, Government of India and done at the Institute of Economic Growth.