NEW DELHI, Dec 24 (Reuters) - India's capital opened a slick city railway on Tuesday which authorities hope will ease pressure on New Delhi's overloaded road transport and cut pollution.
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who travelled on the metro's gleaming South Korean-made cars on their first journey, pulled a lever and waved a green flag to launch a service billed as better than the subway systems of New York and Tokyo.
The Delhi Metro, first conceived in the 1950s but delayed by political and bureaucratic wrangles, is expected to carry more than two million people a day after its first 62-km (38-mile) phase is completed in 2005.
"The people of Delhi have been dreaming of a metro for ages and that has been realised today," Vajpayee said after opening an eight-km (five-mile) stretch of the metro.
"The metro will improve public transport and people will face fewer problems," he said. "There will be a reduction in congestion and fewer buses on roads. Pollution levels should also come under control."
New Delhi, a city of 13 million people, depends on a fleet of rickety buses, taxis and three-wheelers for public transport.
The poor condition of public transport over the years has forced people to use personal cars and motorcycles, making New Delhi one of the world's most polluted cities.
Its roads are packed with more than four million vehicles, many of them spewing black clouds of noxious fumes into the air.
The first phase of the metro is estimated to cost 105 billion rupees ($2 billion), half of which is funded by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation and the rest by the Delhi government and the federal government.
The Delhi Metro, India's second after the eastern city of Calcutta, is a stark contrast to the country's antiquated and much-criticised railway network.
The service features automatic ticketing, state-of-the-art signalling and telecommunications, stations with escalators and tight security. It also imposes strong penalties for littering, vandalism and violation of safety rules.