Improving public transport in India

Urbanization in India is like nowhere else in the world. The country already has more cities with more than 1 million residents than all of Europe put together. This is only set to continue: by 2030 India will overtake China as the world’s most populous country. Infrastructure is critical to keeping a growing city functioning, and metros can play a key role. In India, however, these solutions are still lagging somewhat behind. While the country’s first metro project was kicked off in Kolkata in 1984, the project’s high cost and long delays kept subsequent metro projects out of consideration for another 11 years. Meanwhile the population of Delhi doubled between 1981 and 1998 — and the number of vehicles on its roads quintupled. Finally, the metro option was revived. The Delhi metro system, opened in 2002, now facilitates over 1 billion trips per year.

 

Today new metro systems are under construction and old ones are being expanded all over India. Holcim, through subsidiaries ACC and Ambuja Cement, is a key facilitator of this rapid expansion in urban transport systems. In Delhi alone, ACC has already delivered 300,000 tons of concrete, along with other specially developed materials. Ambuja Cement’s contribution has also been very important, supplying innovative high-performance materials that enhance the durability of the structures. All told, the lives of more than 70 million city dwellers are being transformed by projects with ACC or Ambuja standing behind them.

 

Through ACC and Ambuja, Holcim has both the capacity and the presence to supply materials for the largest and most demanding projects in India — and at a pace to accommodate what will soon be the most populous country in the world.