BENGALURU: The Fare Fixation Committee appointed to recommend the appropriate fare revision for Bengaluru Metro held a final meeting with BMRCL officials on Monday. A final report on the exact fare hike will be submitted within two weeks, said government sources.
The three-member committee was given a deadline of December 15 to submit its recommendation to BMRCL and its report would be binding on Metro. Headed by retired Madras High Court judge Justice R Tharani, the Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Satyendra Pal Singh and former Additional Chief Secretary, Karnataka, EV Ramana Reddy are its members.
The team recently visited Singapore and Hong Kong along with BMRCL officials to study the fare structure in place in the Metro Rails there. “The Metro rails in those countries are owned by the government but are operated by private players. They follow a system of automatic fare revision annually. This will not be accepted in our country,” said a source.
“The Delhi Metro model whereby fares are revised over a period of years is the possible way out,” he added.
The minimum fare on Namma Metro’s 76.95-km network is presently Rs 10 and the maximum fare is Rs 60 with travel card users having a 5% discount on it.
BMRCL officials chose to remain tight-lipped about the proposed revision.
A source said, “A fare hike of 10 percent or even 15 percent is meaningless. A hike of at least 20% will make sense. If you look at BMRCL’s balance sheet, their interest burden on borrowings the previous financial year was Rs 110 crore. It will become Rs 130 crore this financial year due to the capital invested on the Phase-II network. It is only set to increase next fiscal year.”
After the report is finalised, the BMRCL board needs to approve it. “Any operational loss needs to be borne only by the Karnataka Government though the project is a joint venture.”
2ND SET OF COACHES FOR YELLOW LINE BY JANUARY
BENGALURU: Metro train coaches for the Electronics City line, sent by China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC) will depart from Titagarh Rail Systems Limited to Bengaluru only by the end of December. It is set to reach Hebbagodi by road in the first week of January, said multiple BMRCL sources. This will only be the second train set that will be ready for the Yellow Line from RV Road to Bommasandra.
“The six coaches will be sent on separate trailers. They will be coupled together to form a train at Hebbagodi depot after they reach here,” he said. The second train was not ready at Titagarh as all the components to be fitted into the shell of the coaches sent by CRRC were yet to be sourced.
The first train set arrived from Shanghai by ship to Chennai and reached Hebbagodi on February 14 this year. Multiple train testings, speed tests, trial runs and inspection by the commissioner for Metro Rail Safety should happen before the launch. No one at BMRCL was willing to give a timeframe on the possible launch period for the line.