SDM COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

DHARWAD-580002

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

Minor project on

CASE STUDY OF DELHI METRO PROJECT.

Presented by:
1. SANJANA KULKARNI 2SD18CV067
2. SATISH S RATHOD 2SD18CV068
3. SHREYANS V D 2SD18CV077
4. SHRUTI CHAVAN 2SD18CV078
5. VAISHNAVI M GOTE 2SD18CV083
6. VINAY PATRAVALI 2SD18CV083
7. NIKHIL LAMANI 2SD19CV091

UNDER THE GUIDENCE OF - Mr. PRAVEEN SAKARE .

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LIST OF TABLE
1. Work Breakdown Structures and Task Time Estimates for Delhi Metro Project 

2. Risk Management Plan and Risk Register for Delhi Metro Rail Project 

3. Estimates and Final Budgets for Delhi Metro Phases

4. Estimates of Costs and Revenues of Delhi Metro 

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
1. DMRC - Delhi Metro Rail Corporation

2. GoI - Government of India

3. GNCTD - Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi

4. CPCC -Central Pollution Control Board

5. MoE&F - Ministry of Environment & Forests, Govt. of India

6. ASI - Archaeological Survey of India

7. JBIC - Japan Bank for International Corporation

8. INR- Indian Rupees

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 CONTENTS
1. Executive Summary 4

2. Introduction 4

3. Brief Background on the project  5

4. Management of Delhi Metro Rail Project  5

I. The Project Life Cycle 6

II. Planning and Scope of the Delhi Metro Rail Project  6

III. Stakeholder Management of the Delhi Metro Rail Project 9

IV. Risk Management for the Delhi Metro Rail Project 9

V. Budgets and Costing of the Delhi Metro Rail Project  11

VI. Project Teams and Conflict  12

VII. Project Review and Evaluation  12

5. Conclusion 13

6. Recommendations 13

7. List of References  14

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The report summarizes the project management techniques initiated and applied during the
execution of the Delhi Metro Rail Project by the assigned organizations. This report gives a brief
explanation on the initiation, planning and covering the costs of the budget for the execution of
the project. The report also describes what roles have been played by the organizations’ involved in the
implementation of the project with their outcomes and conclusions. The Delhi Metro Rail Project
has proved to be a great success in the recent times as it turned out to be a boon for the people of
Delhi city

INTRODUCTION
Since 1991, The Indian economy has witnessed a rapid expansion and growth with the advent of
economic liberalization in India. This led to the initiation of major infrastructure projects in
India. With this, cities began to grow at a brisk pace as they provided a major share to the
economy with people migrating from remote villages and towns in India looking for
employment. Similarly, the city of Delhi also witnessed the same economic growth. With this,
the population of Delhi also started increasing at an exponential rate. The increase in population
of Delhi significantly led to the increase in number of vehicles running on the streets. The traffic
movement witnessed slow pace due to increased number of vehicles leading to mass congestion.
This congestion has resulted into people leaving their homes nearly 3to 4 hours prior to the
reporting time at their respective places in order to reach on time. The availability of public
transport services like buses, taxis and auto-rickshaws have not matched to the ever-increasing
levels of demands of the general public for their convenience in travelling to their workplaces

The traffic on the roads of Delhi sees a heterogeneous mix of auto-rickshaws, private cars, buses,
motorcycles, scooters, etc. pushing against each other and has resulted into a very chaotic
situation of the roads leading to increase in accidents which sometimes prove to be fatal, wastage
of fuel by stop-start progression of vehicles and even in environmental pollution that has caused
deterioration in quality of air in Delhi (Singh 2013: 8).

In view of these ever-increasing demands for transportation facilities by the people of Delhi, The
Government of India (GoI) and the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD)
set-up a joint-venture with equal partnership named as Delhi Metro Corporation Ltd., (DMRC)
in order to initiate and execute a potential world-class, passenger-friendly and eco-friendly Mass-
Rapid-Transit System known as the Delhi Metro Rail Project. (Singh 2013: 9).

The Delhi Metro Rail Project is the first of the mass rapid transit systems to be initiated and
executed in India with modern-day technology and world-class features. It is designed to be a
potential self-sufficient transport system and more importantly an alternative means of transport
for the people of Delhi in order to reduce traffic congestion on the streets .

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BACKGROUND ON DELHI METRO RAILPROJECT
The increasing number of vehicles on the streets of Delhi has led to long-term traffic jams
causing slow movement of traffic. So the concept of mass rapid transit system was initiated to
address and solve the woes of urban traffic on the streets of Delhi known as Delhi Metro Rail
Project. The Delhi Metro Rail Project is one of the world-class Mass Rapid Transit (MRT)
systems in modern times. The Delhi Metro Rail Project is one of the busiest mass rapid transit
systems in the recent times matching to the standards of busy mass rapid transit systems set by the
New York “Subway”, the London “Tube”, etc.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd, (DMRC) was the organization that was assigned for the
planning, implementation and delivery of the project. It was set up as a joint venture between
Government of India (GoI) and Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD)
(Singh 2013: 9). DMRC did a
background study in order to address the woes of Delhi’s urban traffic and examined the viability 
of various mass rapid transit systems around the world in order to execute the project (Singh
2013: 10).

Under the competent leadership of E. Sreedharan, M.D., DMRC, the construction of the metro
began in1998 and within a span of four years, the construction of the first route of Delhi Metro
got completed in record time and the operations had commenced by the end of 2002.

The Delhi Metro Rail Project is planned to be built in phases not only covering the city of Delhi
but also connecting nearby cities of Gurgaon, Noida, Ghaziabad and Faridabad with metro trains
within a span of20 years with each phase was projected to be completed in 5 years. The
completion of one phase was designed to be set as a benchmark for the commencement of
targeting the next phase (Singh 2013: 10).

MANAGEMENT OF DELHI METRO RAIL PROJECT

Project activities are performed and enacted by an organization order to achieve its planned
objectives. Projects have a definite beginning start and finish time periods which makes it
different from operations which are repetitive. Projects are defined as activities with a predefined
start and end time in order to deliver a distinctive outcome (Project Management Institute 2000:
3)Project management involves a results-focused management style depending upon building
strategic partnerships among heterogeneous mix of people (Larson and Gray 2011 5th Edn: 3). 

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 I. The Project Life Cycle
Since the Delhi Metro Rail Project was a construction-based project, the project life-cycle is
represented by the following (Project Management Institute 2000: 14)

i. Feasibility- project formulation, feasibility studies, and strategy design and approval. A go or
no-go decision is made at the end of this phase.

ii. Planning and Design- base design, cost and schedule, contract terms and conditions, and
detailed planning. Major contracts are let at the end of this phase.

iii. Construction- manufacturing, delivery, civil works, installation, and testing. The facility is
substantially complete at the end of this phase.

iv. Turnover and Start-up- final testing and maintenance. The facility is in full operation at the
end of this phase

II. Planning and Scope of the Delhi Metro Rail Project

No project starts without a definite plan. Planning the project is a vital part in project
management as it sets a benchmark for setting up the executional methods for the project. It
points out the objectives of what the project will achieve when accomplished and how the project
will be completed. Planning process is a mandatory process in project management as poorly
planned projects leads to catastrophic outcomes such as projects getting stalled for longer periods
of time, projects getting officially cancelled midway after initiation, etc.

There are four basic reasons for project planning which as follows (Kerzner 2009 10thEdn:
414):-

i. To eliminate or reduce uncertainty.

ii. To improve efficiency of the operation.

iii. To obtain a better understanding of the objectives.

iv. To provide a basis for monitoring and controlling work.

Many projects in India are put on hold or remain stalled for years due to corrupt political
influence, nepotistic and obsequious work culture within the organization, mismanagement of
resources and exaggerated costs due to high level embezzlement at various stages of project
management leading to scandalous outcomes (Prasad and Govind 2006 : 6). Similarly, to execute
a state-of-the-art mass rapid transit system in the city of Delhi, extensive planning was required
by the DMRC keeping in view to deny any chance of corruption or misallocation of funds to

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prosper at any stage of project management. The DMRC had their objectives well set-out to
address the issues regarding the implementation of the project.

The DMRC planned the Delhi Metro Rail Project in order to meet the following objectives:-

i. To deliver a state-of-the-art mass rapid transit system in the city of Delhi for easy commuting
to places which are inaccessible while travelling by roads.

ii. Reduction in number of usage of vehicles for short trips.

iii. Convenience in movement of traffic on busy streets. The work breakdown structures and task
time estimates for the Delhi Metro Rail Project are described by the following table .

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Table 1 - Work Breakdown Structures and Task Time Estimates for Delhi Metro Project

III. Stakeholder Management of the Delhi Metro Rail Project

The people who influence and collaborate into the activity of project management are known as
Stakeholders. The process of classifying, analyzing and managing the influences of the
stakeholders is known as stakeholder management.

In the case of Delhi Metro Rail Project, there were many stakeholders that were to be addressed
by the DMRC. The stakeholders were the construction companies who collaborated as
contractors, funding agencies, governments and the general public. On consultations the
contractors, the DMRC ensured that the problems at the project-affected roads would be solved
by construction of new roads and widening of existing roads so that there would be smooth
movement of traffic during construction. The DMRC also ensured that the mandatory clearances
and permits required from the concerned organizations and bodies would be received without
any hassles and through effective communication so that it does not face any legal issues by
them. DMRC set a high safety standards so that the extent of damages would prove less fatal in
case of accidents.

Engineering projects might bring a large-scale impact on various environmental components like
air, water, land, ecology, etc. (Smith et al. 2002 2nd Edn: 59). In view of that the project
execution does not hamper the environment of Delhi, the DMRC assessed the impacts of
construction with updated soil tests, plantation of trees near to the metro stations, reducing noise,
air and water pollution levels and they submitted timely reports to the Central Pollution Control
Board (CPCC) and the Ministry of Environment& Forests (MoE&F), Govt. of India. The DMRC
also gave assurance to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) that the construction work
through the heritage monuments of Delhi like the India Gate, Qutub Minar, etc. would not
be affected.

Since the Delhi Metro Rail Project was constructed with the funds allocated by the Japan Bank
for International Corporation (JBIC) since it was the main funding agency. The DMRC
maintained a good collaborative partnership with the officials of JBIC as they invited them for
inaugurating various metro sections as a friendly gesture (Prasad and Govind 2006: 11). The
project was completed within the budget with effective management of resources .

IV. Risk Management for the Delhi Metro Rail Project

 No project goes underway without risk assessment as they are inevitable procedures in the
process of project management. Risk assessment involves identifying the risk, responding and
taking mitigation steps to negate or reduce the likelihood of the risks to occur again. Managing
risks is of utmost importance as occurrence of risks hamper the implementation of the project

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and thereby leads to cancellation or failure of projects. The DMRC processed the following Risk
Management Plan and Risk Register for assessing and overcoming the imminent risks with

indicative colors Red as High Level Risk, Yellow as Medium Level Risk and Green as Low
Level Risk .

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V. Budgets and Costing of the Delhi Metro Rail Project
Financing is the prerequisite for the projects without which projects do not proceed further. The
nature and the amount of finance required varies significantly throughout different stages of
projects (Smith et al. 2002 2nd Edn: 89).

Since the Delhi Metro Rail Project is a joint-venture, it was financed by the following means:-

i. 32% cost of the project were financed by the Government of India (GoI) and Government of
National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD).

ii. 54% cost of the project were financed through the loans from Japan Bank for International
Corporation (JBIC) with a signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that the loan borrowed
would be repaid with variable interest rates regarding the market within a span of 35 years.

iii. The rest 7% were from loans exempted of interests for land acquisition and another 7%
through development of property.

iv. Reliance Infra paid 50% of the funds for construction of metro line through Delhi Airport
through public private partnership model. The estimated and final budgets for the Delhi
Metro Rail Project are stated below

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VI. Project Teams and Conflict
A dedicated project team is being heavily utilized by the engineering firms. In order to become
fully functional, the project teams need to develop a sense of unity, identity and purpose quite
quickly. The success of the project team depends upon its empowering to undertake its task
(Smith et al. 2002 2nd Edn:233).For the Delhi Metro, the DMRC was setup as a dedicated project
team. For his whole- hearted service to the Indian Railways and efficient project management
skills, E. Sreedharan was appointed as the Project Manager. E. Sreedharan was known for
delivering and finishing projects within budgets and on time(Sharma 2015). The members of the
DMRC were recruited on strict instructions from E. Sreedharan on the basis of their efficiency,
competency, punctuality and integrity. The team-building was done on the basis of “we mean
strict business” attitude and ensuring there would be an absolute zero tolerance and adherence to
complacency, corruption and nepotism in order to negate chances of conflict to manifest during
execution of project.

VII. Project Review and Evaluation

The Delhi Metro Rail Project turned out to be a grand success due to the efficient and effective
project management by the DMRC as the metro routes were finished way ahead of their
estimated times. The people and media lauded DMRC for its performance and more importantly
eradicating corruption. Due to their performance in effective project management, the officials at
the DMRC were called upon as consultants and advisors for implementation of metro-rail
projects in different cities of India. The government of UAE also approached DMRC for their
expertise and consultations in implementing the Dubai Metro Project. Since the project is
ongoing with construction of phase III & IV are still underway, the DMRC has already put up
well-managed work schedule with a desire to complete the phases ahead of estimated completion
in 2021.

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CONCLUSION
 The Delhi Metro Rail Project proved a greatly successful public-sector project undertaken in
India excluding the influence and views of government officials and bureaucrats on decision-
making and implementation techniques. The project delivered a new and comfortable means of
transport to the people of Delhi with achievement of its objectives in reducing traffic congestions
on the roads and bringing down pollution levels. Though the final budget costs of the phases
escalated from the original budget costs, the DMRC ensured that it would adhere to achieve its
predetermined objectives on time and meeting the planned targets in order to arrest cost
escalation. Though project management is about continuous improvement and learning from
mistakes, the Delhi Metro Rail Project proved that one organization comprising of fully
dedicated and committed members can manage such a highly labour-intensive project with
proper decision making and effective management and monitoring techniques. A competent and
firm project manager can lead a team of hundreds of individuals through a dynamic and results-
oriented leadership.

RECOMMENDATIONS

From the above report, it is recommended to abide by following steps for effective and efficient
project management:-

1. Engineering projects should be managed on public-sector basis and not on private-sector basis
which shifts priority towards earning pecuniary profits rather than development.

2. For highly volatile markets like India, etc. covers for financial risks and securities is of
utmost importance as unexpected market breakdown can lead to tremendous financial loss
thereby contributing to failure of project.

3. Human Resource Management becomes a top-most priority in developing countries as it takes

a lot of time to spread awareness and impart knowledge to the local people as they lack
knowledge and competency in project management.

4. Proper labour-training programmes need to initiated and channelized so that the labour force
can contribute efficiently towards successful project management.

5. The organization behind project management should recruit people on the basis of credibility
and competency.

6. A set of rules and ethics should be made mandatory to be followed at every stage of project
management and violating to which invite severe penalties like termination from service, etc.

7. In developing countries, the stakeholders have a critical view on large-scale projects so the
organization behind the implementation of the project require effective negotiation skills to
please the stakeholders.

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LIST OF REFERENCE
1. Kerzner, H. (2009)Project Management A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling
andControlling.10th edn. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons Inc.

2. Larson, E.W. and Gray, C. F. (2011) Project Management-The Managerial Process.5th edn.
New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin

3. Prasad, N. V. and Govind, S. (2006) The Delhi Metro Project: Effective Project Management
in the Indian Public Sector. Hyderabad: The ICFAI Center for Management Research

4. Project Management Institute (2000) A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge

(PMBOK Guide).Newton Square, Pennsylvania USA: Project Management Institute, Inc.

5. Singh, M. (2013) Study of PPP Project of Reliance Delhi Metro Airport Line. Lucknow:
Indian Railways Institute of Transport Management

6. Sharma, Dr. L. (2015), ‘Project Management (A Case Study of Delhi Metro Project).’ International
Journal of Current Research.7 (1), 11780-11784.

7. Smith, N. J., Bower, D., Merna, T., Vickridge, I., Moodley, K., Wright, D., Harpum P., Male,
S., (2002) Engineering Project Management.2nd edn. ed. by Smith, N. J. Oxford: Blackwell
Science Ltd.

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