The decision of Punjab government to introduce Metro rail in Ludhiana and other major cities of Punjab is unlikely to sustain in Punjab cities which are still ages behind the Metro culture. Punjab indeed required a Bus Rapid Transit System that the Metro rail option.

As Finance minister of Punjab quoted many times that financial condition of Punjab is not good. Then who will bear this burder of huge investment in the order of 3000 crore. Moreover these 3000 crores seem to be very unrealistic estimation; it does not include the cost of rolling stock. Large projects like the Metro, the viability gap funding tends to make huge demands on the state exchequer.

Instead of building a rail based Mass Rapid Transit System; Bus Rapid Transit System can be a good option for a city like Ludhiana, Mohali, Amritsar. Without changing much of existing road infrastructure same can be accommodated and adopted. Bus based MRTS can cater 80% of the total ridership in comparison to the metro, whilst construction cost of  1km elevated metro line is almost 35 times higher than constructing a at grade dedicated bus lane. Other advantages are, bus provides you node to node better connectivity through open and closed system, whilst Metro Involved longer length of walking trips followed by vertical up and down movement to reach metro station.

A City is just not a physical structure; it is a social structure. We need to address the role of each element and development shall be made by keeping into mind minimal impact on existing social and physical structure. Construction of metro will disturb the skyline of the city and the best example is Chaura Bazar flyover, which has almost spoiled the entire city structure of Ludhiana without changing much improvement in city's congestion situation. Another point of debate can be, metro is required to cater the future demand; but future demand can be very well addressed by developing a better master plan for the city, where people needs to travel lesser distance from workplace to home. Better planning can also results reduced congestion and pollution due to vehicles. 

In Delhi alone, modal share in total motorized trips of through existing bus system is 60%. Punjab can learn the lesson from existing studies and areas where Metro has been implemented. Per kilometer Cost of Delhi Metro's Phase-I for the construction of three lines of 65 km in total length is 163 Crore. 10, 571crore, enough money to by 10 full-bodied Boeing 747s. At present metro ridership is near about 7.5 lakh passenger per day, which is not feeding the 1% of total Delhi's population. As per Delhi Metro Corporation estimations  number of originating passengers per day in the year 2011 for Phase I and Phase II corridors would be 26.17 lakhs.  

A total investment of 20847.92 crore on 213.7 km long rail network just to benefit 2% of the population is not a good idea. In terms of road accidents fatalities on Delhi's Road are increased by 8.6% between 2001 to 2005 period. Passengers using the Metro make up just about a fifth of the numbers projected initially. There is also the sobering experience of the 16 km Kolkata Metro, where ridership is limited to 10 per cent of capacity. 

Delhi Metro data reveals that metro is a viable option where people travel corridor in one direction exceeds intra city demand 20,000 persons per hour. I am sure, just to make metro viable Government won't let Ludhiana to reach at this level through wrong policies and planning. Population density of L udhiana per Sq.kms is 804  persons in comparison to Delhi's population density 9,296  person per square kilometer. With the population density 11 times higher than of Ludhiana, if Delhi metro is not able to generate half of its estimated ridership, then I have doubt that how this metro project will be feasible in the case of circular city Ludhiana well connected with linear and radial roads.