Amid outrage and protests over a recent hike in metro fares in IT capital Bengaluru, the Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah has issued a clarification on the matter.
CM Issues Clarification
In a post on his official X account, the state CM said, “Clarifying the facts on Bengaluru Metro fare hike.”
He went to attribute the rise in fares to the central government in Delhi, and said, “The fare revision was decided by a Union Government-appointed committee, and BMRCL is legally bound to implement it. The Karnataka Government had no role in this decision.”
The CM also added, “BJP must stop misleading the people and take responsibility for its actions.”
The CM’s clarfictaions highlighted the following points
Since 2017, metro fares were not revised, and BMRCL itself wrote to the Union Government requesting a revision.
If the Karnataka Government had the power to decide fares, why did BMRCL write to the Centre instead of the State Government?
Responding to BMRCL’s letter, the Union Government constituted a Fare Fixation Committee (FFC) under Justice R. Tharani (Retd.), former Madras High Court judge. This committee included representatives from both the Union and State Governments.
The Union Government directed the committee, which began functioning on September 16, 2024, with a three-month deadline.
The committee consulted BMRCL officials, visited Delhi and Chennai Metro authorities, studied operations, and analysed fare structures.
The post also said, “Except for the Delhi Metro, the initial phase fares in all other states were determined by the respective state metro corporations. However, fare revisions are now decided by a committee appointed by the Union Government. As per Section 37 of the Metro Railways (Operations and Maintenance) Act, metro corporations (in this case, BMRCL) are legally bound to implement the fare recommendations made by this committee.”
What Are These New Fare Hikes?
The Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL), the body that runs the 2-line metro system (Green Line and Purple Line), has revised the fees, which will result in a 40-50 per cent hike in fare.
Post the revision, the maximum fare has shot up from the previous Rs 60 to the new Rs 90. Here, it is to be noted, that the minimum fare will continue to remain at Rs 10.
In addition, the minimum balance required on smart cards has also been increased from Rs 50 to Rs 90.
What’s Reaction So Far?
This move has irked Bengalurians, many of whom have attributed its hike as side effect of the freebies of the governmental schemes of the incumbent Congress government of Karnataka. This has only made public transport in the IT hub more exorbitant, as the recent comes at the back of 15 per cent hike in bus fares in the city.
Opposition leaders have reacted staunchly to this new development. The city MP (Bangalore South constituency) Tejasvi Surya took the matter up in the ongoing budget session of the parliament.
Surya shared a post on X, in which he said, “At the Zero Hour in Parliament today, I spoke on how the hike in Metro Prices is affecting the middle class in Bengaluru.
Highlighted how this fare hike has led to a 100% increase in the short-distance commute across several metro stations in Bengaluru, making Bengaluru Metro the most expensive metro network & defeating the purpose of creating a sustainable public transport solution for the city.
Urged the concerned authorities to review the anomalies in the fare structure and rationalize the ticket prices to make it more affordable for the common man.”
Although the CM has issues a supposed clarification, no decision on any rollback of the revised fares have been made.
