Delhi Metro Receives ISO 14001 For Eco-friendly Systems

December 24, 2002

NEW DELHI -- The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has been awarded the ISO 14001 certification for environment-friendly construction and operations.

This makes it the second metro system in the world, after the New York Metro, to achieve this standard, and the first one to receive it in the construction stage itself. The Delhi Metro's 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 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 (Shahdara to ISBT) into "green stations" and is already working on developing and implementing maintenance contracts that are environment friendly. USAEP plans to provide continued assistance to DMRC in this endeavor.