At a workshop on Climate Change Financing organised by the UNDP and the department of economic affairs, DMRC managing director Mangu Singh pointed out that in 2007 alone, Delhi Metro had succeeded in helping reduce 17,000 vehicles from plying on the streets and ensuring an analogous reduction of about 26,691 litres of fuel.

“The present ridership in Metro is 18 lakhs per day but will go up to a combined ridership of 40 lakhs per day once the Phase 3 of the Metro is completed,” Mr Singh said.

“The passage per km of Delhi Metro is almost equal to that of the DTC,” said Mr Singh pointing out that its usage has also helped bring down fatal accidents in NCR.

One of the projects which received the green signal was when DMRC was able to show that they brought down CO2 emissions substantially by adopting regenerative braking systems in the trains.

Under regenerative braking process, whenever metro trains apply brakes, three phase-traction motors installed on them act as generators to produce electrical energy which goes back into the Over Head Electricity (OHE) lines.

The energy that is supplied back to the OHE is used by other accelerating trains on the same line, thus saving overall energy in the system as about 30 per cent of electricity requirement is reduced.

The certification report was given by German-based validation organisation TUV NORD, which conducted an audit on behalf of the UNFCC.

The DMRC saves 1,12,500 megawatt hours of power generation by restricting and reusing power through regenerative braking thus preventing over 90,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from being emitted into the atmosphere.

This figure will only increase once Phase 2 and 3 get completed, Mr Singh said.

The agency has also earned Rs. 2.4 crores from the sale of 82,000 CERS under the carbon credits scheme. It earned Rs. 1.07 crore through the sale of 39,000 CERs for 2008, and Rs. 1.33 crore through the sale of 43,000 CERs for 2009.

DMRC has earned Rs. 1,586 crores though property developed, the Metro chief said.