Delhi Metro Receives ISO 14001 For Eco-Friendly Systems
Delhi 's new underground rail system became an astonishing success when it carried over 1.2 million passengers on its first day, December 25, 2002. It is the first metro system in the world to obtain ISO 14001 certification for environment-friendly construction and operations in the construction stage itself, and the second after the New York Metro, to achieve this standard.

Reaching this milestone was made possible through technical assistance by the New York Metro, facilitated by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). US assistance to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) began in early 2001 when the US-Asia Environmental Partnership (USAEP), a division of the USAID, arranged a presentation on developing and institutionalizing an Environment Management System (EMS) as per ISO 14001 for the DMRC's senior management at New Delhi . A New York Transit official, who has been working with the Kolkata Metro to institutionalize EMS in its maintenance operations, was brought in to deliver this presentation.

DMRC officials bought into it, and USAEP arranged technical assistance through the New York Metro to help them design and implement the plan. The Delhi Metro set itself an ambitious target of achieving certification by the year's end and achieved it in time for its inaugural run on December 24, 2002 .

The DMRC plans to convert all its stations on the first line (Shahadra to ISBT) into "green stations" and is already working on developing and implementing maintenance contracts that are environment friendly. USAEP will be facilitating continued technical assistance through the New York Metro to expand the existing EMS to operations and maintenance of the Delhi Metro.

The benefits of this project are manifold as the metro can carry the same amount of traffic as nine lanes of buses or 33 lanes of private metro cars either way. During the first phase itself, the metro will service 1.95 million commuters per day. This would mean:

• 2,600 less buses on the roads;
• A saving of 2.6 person hours per day due to reduced journey time;
• Annual fuel savings worth $ 1 million;
• Reduction in atmospheric pollution;
• Reduction in road accidents; and
• More comfortable and safe travel for commuters.

Date: 2003