Leaders announce the 'beginning of a new era' as they dig a 2-4 km tunnel in Nepal. Speeches, banners, opening ceremonies go on. However, after I lived in Japan, I realized that development happens silently.
Looking at the underground world of the Tokyo Metro, this is how the real era changes.
One day I had to go from Kamata Station to Roppongi Station due to work. After climbing the Oyedo line, the train gradually began to descend deeper underground. The faster Tokyo's train reaches its destination, the more interesting its history. It took 14 years to build the Oyedo line, where more than 10,000 workers worked in 3 shifts. The earth excavated during the construction of this line was transported to Tokyo Bay, where the city of Adaiba, with a population of two million, now sits.
Realized when I got off at Roppongi Station, I was 42.3 meters below the ground. Excavated 13 floors underground, this station is one of the deepest underground stations in the world. However, this was only the beginning. As I headed towards Shinjuku Station, the vastness was even more astounding. Shinjuku Station is no ordinary station, it is the busiest train hub in the world, where more than 3.5 million passengers travel back and forth every day. Its underground level is 50 meters deep, which is equivalent to the height of a 16-story building.
Tokyo's underground world isn't just limited to train stations. There are more than 330 kilometers of underground railways, more than 14 subway lines and hundreds of stations. Some of these subway lines are particularly notable—Ginza Line, Marunouchi Line, Hibiya Line, Asakusa Line, etc. Here at Shinjuku, Shibuya and Tokyo Stations there is an underground city, where restaurants, shopping malls, offices, parking, escalators and elevators are connected underground.
It takes 10 years to build a bridge in Nepal, 15 years to dig a tunnel. As Japan continues to expand the 'underground map' of its cities, we are still hearing talk of 'era change'. I wanted to bring Nepal's leader to Tokyo and show them - this is how development works. Planning, not speech, develops. Hard work makes progress, not opening hype. As this underground revolution of the Tokyo Metro shows, real development doesn't need cheap hype, the results speak for themselves.
– Santosh Simkhada , Tokyo, Japan
