No official orders have been issued to cancel the update Bangalore Metro Rail tariffs to begin this Monday, the news agency said PTI.
Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) had earlier declared a price adjustment ranging between Re 1 and ₹5.
“We have not received any instruction to reduce metro fares. Therefore, what was announced earlier stands,” a BMRCL said the official PTI.
On Saturday, Tejasvi Surya, BJP MP for Bengaluru South, claimed that Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had asked the authorities to temporarily suspend the intended fare hike.
Surya noted that the Union Minister had promised a personal inquiry into the irregularities under the Fare Fixation Committee (FFC) and suggested that a new committee be formed on the request of the state government.
Earlier in the day, Surya met metro passengers to get their feedback on the fare hike.
After speaking to the media, he said riders were frustrated with the regularity of these fare changes.
As a result, Surya called for the formal establishment of a new fare fixation committee.
The BJP MP also alleged that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy CM DK Shivakumar were “misleading the public by blaming the Center for the price hike”.
At the same time, Union Minister for Steel and Heavy Industries HD Kumaraswamy held the state administration responsible for this increase. He claimed that the state is pushing for the increase despite the central government’s advice to stop it.
“After increasing metro fares, the state government is shifting the responsibility to the Centre, which is not true,” a second-in-command of the JD(S) told reporters in Mysuru.
Kumaraswamy also accused the state of not maintaining cooperation with the Center on implementation of federal policies and programmes.
On Saturday, DK Shivakumar said Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation did not consult him before revising fares and assured to discuss the matter.
“They did not consult us. They have the authority because the central secretary to the government is the chairman. He has taken this decision. I do not want to cause problems to the public and I plan to discuss the matter further… I will also review the financial structure of the decision,” he said.
The First Fare Fixation Committee (FFC), while recommending the revised fare structure for BMRCL, found that the fare revision after 7.5 years and optimization of fare zones from 29 to 10 resulted in an average increase of 51.55%. To avoid such a situation of rare and steep fare hike in future, the committee in its report recommended revising fares annually by having a transparent formula for automatic annual fare revision linked to O&M cost or 5% per annum, whichever is lower, rounded off to the nearest rupee.
