(Alok, a professor, and Pavan, a research associate, are affiliated with the School of Economics at the University of Hyderabad.)In 2002, when Delhi NCR's first metro line between Shahdara and Tis Hazari was inaugurated by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, it was only the second city in India after Kolkata to have metro rail running through its densely populated areas. Twenty-three years later, there are 23 cities (including Delhi and the NCR region - Gurugram, Faridabad, Noida, Ghaziabad, and with the Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) extending all the way to Meerut) having operational metro rail networks. Five more cities are in various stages of implementation, with additional projects under proposal.
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