BENGALURU: The Metro fare hike made in February that has burnt a hole in commuters’ pockets was caused by a “mistake in calculation”, according to an independent mobility expert.
Satya Arikutharam’s claim follows his examination of the Fare Fixation Committee (FFC) Report that was made public after much protest from the public and politicians. According to him, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) asked the Fare Fixation Committee for a 105% increase, when the correct figure should have been much lower at 55.75%. Explaining where the miscalculation occurred, Arikutharam said, “What they (BMRCL) should have done is to take the actual change in operating cost per kilometre, which has gone up by 39.6%, and then consider that in the fare hike.
Instead, they looked at the Cost Price Index (CPI) between 2017 and 2024 for energy and staff costs and actual historic costs for maintenance and administration. Basically, when you already have the historic data for energy and staff costs, there was no need to use the CPI.”
“For staff and energy, they used published indices. But for maintenance and administration, they made a calculation mistake. In 2017, the cost per kilometre was actually Rs 0.81 crore as per their data, but they miscalculated it as Rs 0.38 crore. Due to this error, when they compared 2017 and 2024, they showed an increase of 366%. Actually, it should have been only 118.5%,” he clarified.
“Hence, BMRCL erroneously sought a high fare increase of 105%. But if you calculate properly, it comes to 55.75%. And even that is higher than the actual cost/km increase from 2017 of 40%,” he stated.
He added, “It is very disappointing that the unnecessarily high Metro fare hike is driven by a calculation error. I urge BMRCL to roll back the hike immediately and limit it to 40% maximum across all fare slabs and revise it annually as per the FFC Report. The focus must be to quickly realise the full revenue potential of the Yellow, Blue and Pink lines.”
“I also urge the state government to scrap the Tunnel Road and commit to the quick completion of the Metro and suburban rail network,” he stated.