Urban Mobility Challenges in Delhi NCR and the need for UMTA

By Abhinash Jena & Priya Chetty on August 18, 2026

Urban mobility is fundamental to the growth of developing and rapidly urbanising regions because it connects people to employment, education, healthcare and other essential opportunities. As cities expand beyond their traditional cores, efficient and inclusive transport becomes vital for sustaining economic activity, improving quality of life and limiting congestion, pollution and unequal access. In Delhi NCR, dispersed urban growth and rising cross-border travel therefore demand an integrated regional mobility system supported by coordinated planning and governance. Over the last fifteen years, Delhi NCR has witnessed a much larger and dispersed travel trend. NCR has also expanded into a much larger interstate region. Its early planning area of about 30, 242 sq. km included Delhi, Faridabad, Gurgaon, Rohtak and Sonipat in Haryana, parts of Rewari and Panipat; Meerut, Ghaziabad and Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh; and parts of Alwar in Rajasthan (NCRPB, 2021). Later additions included Bhiwani, Mahendragarh, Bharatpur, Jind, Karnal, Muzaffarnagar and Shamli. Today, NCR covers about 55, 083 sq. km across four states.

The combined population of Delhi and its satellite cities of Gurugram, Faridabad, Ghaziabad and Noida increased to 3.06 crore in 2025. As a result, movement between residential areas, offices, and educational institutions has increased. However, p ublic transport account ed for only 40% of total motorised trips in Delhi, while private vehicles account for the remaining 60%. The NCR transport plan (NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION PLANNING BOARD, 2022) has set the ambitious target of reversing this trend to reduce pollution and energy use, to make transportation inclusive, and to reduce the constant burden of road construction (Joshi et al., 2021; Ranjan & Sinha, 2025; Toledano et al., 2025).

ModeForecast daily trips in 2032Share of total trips
Regional and urban buses103.49 lakh48.70%
Commuter rail/RRTS16.96 lakh8.00%
Metro12.06 lakh5.70%
Conventional public transport132.51 lakh62.40%
Autorickshaws/IPT7.91 lakh3.70%
Public and shared transport combined140.42 lakh66.10%
Cars53.91 lakh25.40%
Two-wheelers18.15 lakh8.50%
Private vehicles212.48 lakh33.90%
Total forecast trips212.48 lakh100%

But there are several impediments to achieving this goal. First, feeder services, which make buses, autos and e-rickshaws available to carry passengers from their homes to major transport hubs and back, are over crowd ed, unavailable or expensive (Ashok, 2021; Gowande & Pradeep, 2025). Second, the Delhi Metro has been slow to expand, missing deadlines by several months across multiple corridors (Comptroller and Auditor General, 2021; Delhi Metro Rail Corp. Ltd., 2025, 2026). When combined with the problem of weak feeder services, journeys become difficult for the public. Third, conflicting infrastructure projects that are often designed by separate agencies without coordination.

EXAMPLE

South Delhi’s Sarai Kale Khan was being developed as a major interchange for buses, rail, metro and RRTS. At the same time, a separate flyover project was executed. Pedestrian connectivity was initially ignored, therefore most of the commuters chose to travel by private vehicles instead.

Mishra & Chand, 2023

Similarly, 56 out of 215 planned measures in 2025 such as installing new signals, widening roads, building parking spaces and skywalks were later declared unfeasible because of clashes with other projects (Jairath, 2026). As a result, commuters continued to bear traffic congestion, fuel costs and pollution.

This article aims to explain the main urban mobility challenges faced in Delhi NCR. It examines changing travel patterns, weak public transport integration, first- and last-mile problems, and the effects on environmental pollution. Its purpose is to show that infrastructure expansion alone is not enough. There is an urgent need for a Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (UMTA) to coordinate transport planning across the NCR.

Changing travel patterns in Delhi NCR

NCR’s collective population more than doubled from 3.71 crore to 7.58 crore between 2001 and 2025, while Delhi’s rose more gradually from 1.39 crore to 2.25 crore, showing that population growth increasingly shifted towards the wider NCR (NCRPB, n.d.).

Figure 1: Comparison of Population growth of Delhi v/s NCR (Delhi Planning, 2013)

However, at the same time the number of private vehicle trips increased faster than public transport trips, indicating that more numbers of people preferred to take their private cars to reach the city. This trend is expected to continue until 2032, indicating a worrying trend for the Delhi government.

Figure 2: Public v/s private transportation in Delhi (National Institute of Urban Affairs, 2020)

Delhi has three interstate bus terminals (IBSTs):

  1. Kashmere Gate,
  2. Anand Vihar and,
  3. Sarai Kale Khan.

It has five major railway stations:

  1. New Delhi,
  2. Old Delhi,
  3. Hazrat Nizamuddin,
  4. Anand Vihar and,
  5. Delhi Sarai Rohilla.

IGI Airport is the region’s main aviation gateway. Together, these connections reinforce Delhi’s national and regional importance and help sustain the inward migration trend shown in the figure below.

Figure 3: Inward migrant population growth in Delhi through major gateways (Delhi Planning, 2013; Jha, 2023)

The Delhi Economic Survey shows that in 2001, 43.1% of migrants came from Uttar Pradesh, 13.6% from Bihar and 10.4% from Haryana. Although population has started expanding towards peripheries, inward migration into Delhi kept growing.

A further study of Delhi’s travel patterns show that its major multimodal transport hubs handle several lakh passengers :

  • Anand Vihar is estimated to handle about 4.5 lakh passengers daily, including around 1–1.1 lakh Delhi Metro passengers, 2 lakh bus passengers and 1.5 lakh Indian Railways passengers (Priyangi Agarwal, 2023; Chauhan, 2025; ETrain Info, 2026).
  • Sarai Kale Khan handles approximately 3.8 lakh passengers daily, including about 10000 ISBT passengers, 3.6 lakh railway passengers through the adjoining Hazrat Nizamuddin Railway Station and around 7000–8000 Namo Bharat passengers (Mishra, 2025).
  • New Delhi Railway Station and its connected Metro stations together handle at least 4.5 lakh passengers daily (Mondal, 2025; Business Today, 2026).
  • IGI Airport handled 78.7 million passengers in FY2025–26, equivalent to roughly 2.16 lakh passenger movements per day on an annual-average basis (GMR Airports, 2026).

These volumes show population concentration around Delhi’s major interchange hubs. This has resulted in an increased road congestion which has substantially increased journey times within Delhi. In 2025, travelling 10 km in Delhi took an average of about 26 minutes during the morning rush hour and almost 32 minutes during the evening rush hour; commuters lost an estimated 104 hours to rush-hour traffic over the year (TomTom, 2026). Delhi Traffic Police identified congestion at 134 locations within Delhi in 2024 (PIB, 2025a). The figure below shows the most critical chokepoints and the average time and distance to IGI airport during rush hour.

Peak-hour access to IGI Airport from key locations of Delhi
Peak-hour access to IGI Airport from key locations of Delhi (Approximate distances)

Reaching IGI Airport from NCR’s peripheral cities takes even longer. Road trips from Faridabad and Ghaziabad average about 74 and 72 minutes respectively (Uber, 2026a), while Rewari and Meerut takes around 95 minutes and 2 hours respectively (Uber, 2026b). It requires passengers to plan their travel well in advance despite being in the same territory.

Peak-hour road access to IGI Airport from NCR peripheral cities
Peak-hour road access to IGI Airport from NCR peripheral cities (Approximate distances)

NCR has become a polycentric region

Originally aimed at arresting the growth of inward migration in Delhi, the basic idea behind the NCR plan was that people should be able to live and work in the peripheral areas instead of commuting into Delhi for every opportunity. Several national highways, expressways, regional rail lines, and industrial corridors were built to realise this aim. Delhi Metro further accelerated this growth of economic and infrastructure development in NCR. It is no longer centred solely on government employment in Delhi. Different sub-centres developed specialised roles:

AreaMajor form of growth
GurugramCorporate offices, IT, finance and real estate
Noida and Greater NoidaIT, electronics, housing and institutional development
GhaziabadHousing, manufacturing and logistics
FaridabadIndustry, housing and services
Sonipat–KundliEducation, warehousing and industry
ManesarAutomobile and industrial production
Greater Noida–Yamuna ExpresswayPlanned townships, logistics and airport-led development

This spread created a polycentric region with several employment and residential centres. A polycentric city is one which has several nearby inter-linked towns of economic activity that do not depend entirely on the single dominant core (Derudder et al., 2022). In case of NCR, employment, housing, and education have expanded rapidly in Gurugram, Noida, Greater Noida, Faridabad, Ghaziabad and Meerut. This has created stronger travel flows between NCR cities themselves, bypassing Delhi. In fact, 22.9% of vehicles crossing Delhi were found to have both their origin and destination outside the city (Sharma & Chauhan, 2022). However there are limited highways connecting these peripheral regions directly.

EXAMPLE

A person residing in Noida and employed in Gurugram must pass through Delhi making multiple transfers (home → e-rickshaw → Metro → another Metro → auto/bus → destination ) because there is no direct rail connection. Their troubles are compounded by the fact that:

  • Feeder services are unreliable.
  • Fares for each mode are separate and inconsistent.
  • Travel information between different modes is lacking.

Journeys that earlier took around 35–40 minutes can take 90–120 minutes now because of congestion (Dev, 2023). To address this rising gap, a 64-km Gurugram–Faridabad–Noida–Greater Noida Namo Bharat corridor was proposed (Mondal, 2026). Other such plans are:

Regional link/corridorWhat it connectsHow it reduces dependence on Delhi
Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) (PIB, n.d.)Kundli–Baghpat–Ghaziabad–Greater Noida–PalwalAllows UP-side and Haryana-bound traffic to move around eastern Delhi rather than through it
Western Peripheral Expressway / KMP (PIB, 2018)Kundli–Manesar–PalwalAllows movement between northern, western and southern NCR without entering Delhi
EPE + KMP regional ring (PIB, 2025b)Sonipat/Kundli–Manesar–Palwal–Greater Noida–Ghaziabad–BaghpatTogether they form a 270-km ring around Delhi specifically intended to divert non-destination traffic
Faridabad–Noida–Ghaziabad (FNG) Expressway (Alam, 2026)Faridabad–Noida–GhaziabadCreates a direct east–south NCR route instead of routing Faridabad–Noida/Ghaziabad traffic through Delhi
Greater Noida–Faridabad link via Manjhawali bridge (V. Rajput, 2025a)Greater Noida–FaridabadDirect Yamuna crossing between UP and Haryana; avoids the long Delhi route
DND–Faridabad–Sohna/Delhi–Mumbai Expressway spur (PIB, 2026)Noida/DND–Faridabad–Sohna–Gurugram sideProvides a high-speed east–southwest NCR connection and links Noida/Faridabad with the Delhi–Mumbai corridor
Gurugram–Faridabad–Noida–Greater Noida Namo Bharat (NCRTC, 2026)Gurugram–Faridabad–Noida–Greater NoidaCreates a direct rail link between Haryana and UP employment centres without making Delhi the destination
Ghaziabad–Greater Noida–Jewar Namo Bharat (Bhardwaj, 2026)Ghaziabad–Greater Noida West–Surajpur–Greater Noida–Noida AirportCreates a north/east-UP regional rail spine independent of central Delhi
Eastern Orbital Rail Corridor (EORC) (Jha, 2026)Palwal–Noida–Ghaziabad–Baghpat–SonipatProposed specifically for passenger and freight movement around Delhi; follows the EPE side of NCR
Eastern extension of UER-II (Singh, 2025)Delhi-Dehradun Expressway–Ghaziabad–Noida–FaridabadLinks several expressways and provides an eastern bypass for intercity/freight traffic instead of using Delhi’s internal roads
Noida Airport–Ganga Expressway link (V. Rajput, 2025b)Jewar/Yamuna Expressway–Bulandshahr–Ganga ExpresswayGives western UP and Meerut-side traffic direct access to the airport/Greater Noida region without travelling toward Delhi
Gurugram–Jhajjar high-speed corridor (Gupta, 2026)Gurugram–Farrukhnagar–JhajjarStrengthens west-NCR movement and links into the Dwarka Expressway/KMP-side network rather than depending on Delhi routes

The central challenge is not simply that NCR residents travel farther. Many journeys require passing through Delhi, enduring congestion and making multiple transfers. Addressing this problem requires an integrated regional mobility plan that provides direct connections between NCR’s peripheral centres. Road construction alone is insufficient. Despite the DND Flyway, Noida Expressway and Delhi–Meerut Expressway, journeys between Delhi and Noida that took about 35–40 minutes roughly 25 years ago can now take 90–120 minutes because of traffic.

The energy cost of NCR’s present travel pattern

Over twenty years, Delhi’s urban area more than doubled, while average trip length increased from 8.5 km to 10.4 km (Joshi et al., 2021). In Delhi NCR, dependence on private cars is not simply a matter of people “liking cars”. In a survey of 600 Delhi commuters, researchers found that crowd management scored only 2.2/5, CCTV 2.0/5, seating and waiting facilities 1.9/5, and gender-sensitive infrastructure 2.3/5 (Choudhary et al., 2025a). News reports also link overcrowding and unpredictable services with greater private-vehicle use (Mathur, 2019; A. Rajput, 2026). As a result, people continue to prefer private vehicles over public transport. Thus, the NCR’s urban mobility problem has also transversed into an energy problem. Commuters with emissions above the median were found to have 66.3% car share and travel on an average 6 km more than lower emitters with only 17.9% car share (Yang et al., 2023). The analysis showed that if multiple centres are not developed, the emissions will keep rising.

Although the Delhi government has undertaken many measures to boost electric vehicles (EV) sales but in spite of achieving 14% market penetration in 2025, Delhi’s air pollution has remained persistently high, with average AQI reaching 374 in November 2024 (Raha, 2026). Krishna (2025) projects India could add 107–145 million private vehicles by 2030, pushing peak fuel demand to around 60 million tonnes and CO2 emissions to 174 million tonnes. This will intensify the emission problem further. Improving public transport is therefore critical. Furthermore, NCR’s growth has also imposed a growing noise burden on its people. Travel time has been proven to be the strongest predictor of noise in Delhi (Kumar et al., 2024). Noise levels substantially exceed India’s daytime limits of 55 dB(A) for residential areas and 65 dB(A) for commercial areas (CPCB, 2000). Traffic and honking are the main sources.

Fragmented authority weakens the urban mobility network

The deeper problem is that in India urban transport is weak because of fragmented authority. Different institutions make decisions without a single body managing the whole journey from origin to final destination of a commuter. In Delhi, weak first- and last-mile connections continue to deter commuters from switching from private vehicles to the Metro (Choudhary et al., 2025b). As the NCR grows, this institutional gap becomes increasingly serious, making region-wide coordination essential.

EXAMPLE

In Delhi Metro, problems accessing first-mile and last-mile transport modes still discourages many people from shifting from private vehicles to Metro.

Choudhary et al., 2025b

Delhi had attempted common public-transport payment before COVID-19 through the One Delhi Card. Yet it peaked at only 2.28% of bus journeys in July 2019 because faulty equipment and limited coverage reduced its usefulness, while Metro and bus fares remained separate. The experience shows that technological integration requires institutional coordination. The presence of multiple modes of transport alone does not guarantee integration. Effective integration will require physical connections between varios modes of transport, coordinated fares, and schedules. People should not have to pay separately to access 3-4 different modes of transport in their journey. This requires collaboration between the agencies that operate them (Tanwar & Agarwal, 2025). An NCR-wide UMTA should prevent similar planning failures by unifying Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh’s transport projects under one regional mobility plan, supported by common ticketing and shared data (Ministry of Urban Development, 2016).

A Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (UMTA) is designed to fill institutional gaps. It serves as an apex coordinating body for transport planning across a metropolitan region without replacing existing agencies. Each agency retains its responsibilities, while the UMTA aligns plans and priorities so that separate projects operate as a single network. Recognising that urban transport responsibilities are usually divided among multiple institutions, India’s National Urban Transport Policy recommended UMTAs for cities with populations above one million. However, their authority and powers vary across cities.

Its main purpose is therefore to solve institutional fragmentation. Without a UMTA, one agency may plan a Metro station while another plans roads, buses or parking around it independently.

EXAMPLE

Suppose a new Metro station is planned near a major bus terminal. The UMTA can ensure that Metro agencies, bus operators, road agency, and the municipality work together.

Therefore, NCR-UMTA’s main responsibilities should be:

  • Prepare one regional mobility plan covering the entire NCR.
  • Identify major travel corridors using origin–destination data, such as Gurugram–Noida or Ghaziabad–Faridabad.
  • Coordinate agencies handling the Metro, Namo Bharat, buses and rail so that routes and schedules align.
  • Set common standards for walking distances, accessibility, signage, passenger information and feeder services.
  • Develop integrated fares and ticketing so passengers can use different modes as parts of one journey.
  • Create a common mobility-data platform containing routes, fares, schedules, ridership and service-performance data.
  • Coordinate transport and land-use planning so that new housing are adequately connected.
  • Evaluate projects by their outcomes, including reduction in congestion, energy use and emissions, and improvement in accessibility, rather than simply by kilometres of roads or rail constructed.

Delhi NCR’s urban mobility crisis stems not from a lack of projects, but from fragmented planning across a rapidly expanding, polycentric region. New roads and rail corridors will have limited impact unless they are supported by reliable feeder services, integrated fares, shared data and coordinated land-use planning. Thus, an empowered NCR-wide UMTA can bring agencies and states under one enforceable urban mobility strategy, making public transport more accessible and reducing congestion, energy use and emissions.

References

NOTES

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