Delhi's pains could prove to be a gain for Hyderabad, Mumbai, Bangalore and other cities where metro projects are being planned. With several domestic firms gaining technical expertise in the Delhi metro project, the capital cost of new metro projects coming up in other cities could be only a fraction of the Delhi project.

For instance, the average project cost of the metro being envisaged in Hyderabad is only around Rs 80 crore (Rs 800 million) per km, against Rs 160 crore (Rs 1,600 million) per km for the Delhi metro.

The detailed project report for the 39.45 km Hyderabad-Secunderabad metro project has been estimated at Rs 3,205 crore (Rs 32.05 billion) at April 2003 prices, which translates into a per km cost of Rs 81.2 crore (Rs 812 million). "The cost of the Delhi metro project at Rs 10,571 crore (Rs 105.71 billion) for 66 km of metro corridors is higher since most of the technology has been sourced from abroad," a Delhi Metro Rail Corporation executive said.

The domestic partners in Delhi metro's eight major supply contracts include HCC Ltd, Ircon and Larsen & Toubro for design and construction of civil works, Alstom India for signalling and communication, Ircon for traction power systems and track system and ABB India and Engineering India Ltd for supply of power systems. Rites is also among the five general consultants who are supervising the overall project.

In the case of rolling stock, state-owned Bharat Earth Movers Ltd has started manufacturing coaches under a technology transfer agreement with Rotem, the Japanese-Korean consortium supplying rolling stock during the first phase of the project.

"With domestic players gaining experience and absorbing technology being used for the Delhi project, they can lead the way in future metro projects and thereby bring down project costs," an official said. Like the Hyderabad project, the metro project being planned in other cities like Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Mumbai are also expected to be executed at considerably lower costs than the Delhi project.

These new projects are already saving a lot of money by handing over the mandate to prepare detailed project reports to DMRC. The report for the Hyderabad metro, which will consist of two corridors -- 26.27 km Miyapur-Chitanyapuri corridor and 13.18 km Secunderabad-Falaknuma corridor -- has been prepared by DMRC.

The detailed project report of the Bangalore metro is ready and the Hyderabad metro study has already been submitted to the Centre and the state government. The report for the Ahmedabad metro was expected to be ready in the next few months, while work on the feasibility report for the Mumbai metro project had just got underway, officials said.