BENGALURU: Under fire from commuters, political parties and its own board for effecting over a 100% fare hike, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) on Thursday announced that it would recalibrate its fare matrix to ensure that the maximum hike would be capped at 71.2%. By reconfiguring distance measurement under different slabs, BMRCL stated that 46% of its ridership, totalling 2,91,418, will benefit from Friday with the one-way fare set to be reduced by at least Rs 9.
The announcement was made in the afternoon after two rounds of deliberations last night and early Thursday by BMRCL chairman Srinivas Katikithala, who is also secretary, Union Ministry of Urban Affairs. He wanted Metro officials to communicate to commuters about the hike and clear all misconceptions.
Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah sought an urgent review of fare hike in view of calls for rollback or reduction.
Briefing reporters, managing director M Maheshwar Rao said, “Presently, there are 4,624 fare matrices (permutations and combinations) possible between 68 Metro stations. Of them, there are issues in approximately 600 cases that have reported a surge in fare ranging between 70 and 100%. Of them, 30 tickets (onward and return) have reported a fare hike above 100% while 150 have reported a hike of 90 to 100%, and so on.
Calibration is being done so that kilometres would figure in the right slab. Based on November ridership data, we estimate that 2.9 lakh out of our 8 lakh-plus ridership will benefit with a reduction of at least Rs 9 during each journey.”
In a release on February 8, BMRCL announced that the maximum hike would be 50% for maximum distance. The 71.2% cap announced on Thursday is actually an increase being effected.