Year Review

Authored By..

Priyanka Sahu Director, Business Development Symbroj Media Pvt Ltd

Year 2020 at a Glance

The year started with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and it modified the ways which we used to live in. The scenerio changed in India in the second week of March and then after the country went into full lockdown since March 24, 2020 and few sectors remain under partial lockdown even now. The year was really very challenging and it indeed threatened the very concept of the human life.

As the pandemic hit the world in the initial days of the year 2020, the things became out of control in some nations. 1.98 million people have already died worldwide due to the Coronavirus Pandemic. The seriousness of the pandemic has been experienced by all of us and I think that the sanitizers and masks will continue to be an essential item of our daily lives for few more years.

However, at the end of the year, the vaccine was invented and its use was approved by different nations. The rigorous scientific research has yielded its fruits and it has shown a more humanitarian path to the mankind. We as a nation have been overcoming the problems created by the pandemic and I hope the things will be normal in the next few months.

Coming to the Metro and Rail Sectors, it wasn't a good year at all for the operational part. However, it has been a wonderful year when it comes to development of new projects. The new metro projects are coming up very fast and they have achieved new heights even during the pandemic. The year saw the opening up of 31 km long new metro lines for public in the year. These lines came up in Nagpur, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Jaipur and Kochi.

With all these developments, we have now 678 km of operational metro corridors in the country while 485 km of metro lines are under construction process. The distance of proposed Metro lines has reached to 1041 km while 515 km of metro routes have been approved bythe government. The year also saw the construction works of metro projects getting started in new cities like Agra and gaining pace in Kanpur. The water metro project of Kochi also gained momentum in the year. The most awaited RRTS project was initiated, the design of its rolling stock was launched and the works for the first RRTS Corridor ofthe country got started. Bombardier's new rolling stock and TBMs have been a matter of attraction.

The Bullet Train Project has also gained momentum with major tenders for civil construction works being awarded to companies. L&T emerged as a major player in the bidding process of Bullet Train Project and these all things will give a boost to the first HighSpeed Rail Corridor ofthe country.

With these all developments, we have finally got our first HighSpeed Rail Corridor and Semi High Speed Rail Corridor in the year 2020. At the end of the year, the first driverless train of the country was unveiled by PM Modi which is currently operating on the magenta line of the DMRC network. The DMRC turned 18 in the year 2020 which is really a matter of pride for the country. India has stepped into a phase where it is laying the foundation stone for a Next-Gen urban transit system and the last year of the second decade of this century witnessed this development. "The inauguration of the first driverless metro train shows how fast India is moving towards smart systems" , the PM said while unveiling the first driverless train through his virtual presence.

The things were better than ever for the Metro and Rail Sectors and we are hopeful that the newyear brings more fruitful results.

We encourage your participation and therefore we request you to continue your support during this year in a more peculiar way. We are starting a program where we will publish an article from readers or based on your suggestions.

We thank You forthe support which you provided in the year 2020. Thanks