BENGALURU: You need to hold on to your Metro token more than ever before now. The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) has now increased the fee for ticketless travel by up to four times recently. The luggage charges to be paid for any baggage weighing more than 15 kg too has been trebled.
According to a Metro source, the move to hike the charges on both was effected from mid-November. “This is part of our business plan. Controllers in all Metro stations have been asked to collect the new fee from consumers,” the source said.
In the language of Metro, ticketless travel refers to lost tokens or Smart Card. “Earlier, the penalty to be paid in the case of a lost token was `50 along with the travel fare. BMRCL initially hiked the penalty for ticketless travel to `500 but then felt it was too much. It was then reduced to `200.”
Posters to this effect have now been displayed in all Metro stations. The cost of each token costs Namma Metro up to `25 due to the Radio Frequency Identification Technology chip embedded in it which permits the opening of gates.
Baggage penalty increased
BMRCL has also hiked the penalty to be paid in case of baggages above 30 kg or which exceeds 60x45x25 cms, the source said. “This has mainly been done to deter public from carrying big baggages inside Metro trains as standing space for co-passengers get reduced,” he said.Asked about how the weight of baggages is calculated in the absence of weighing machines at stations, the source said the Customer Care Executive makes a judgement call. “If the executive feels the baggage is heavy, then the customer is charged for excess baggage.” The security staff at the entrance alerts the executive the moment someone enters with heavy luggage, the source said. Asked if numerous small bags are okay, the official said, “A couple of bags are okay. But if someone carries ten small bags, then the commuter could be booked.”
Two instances of people expressing their anger over this hike have already been received at a station, the source added.