The Mumbai Metro is at least two months away from being ready, but the Anil Ambani-led consortium executing the project is already looking to make people pay more.
The state administration confirmed on Thursday that Mumbai Metro One Private Limited had demanded a fare hike for the first link of the project, Versova to Ghatkopar.
“They have proposed an increase of more than 50 per cent, citing cost overruns and delay in building the transit system,” MMRDA Metropolitan Commissioner UPS Madan told Mirror. MMRDA is the government authority overseeing the project.
State Chief Secretary Jayant Banthia said that the government was studying the demand.
The attempt to recover costs through an increase in fares will further infuriate Mumbaikars who have seen the project miss deadlines and cause traffic nightmares.
Mumbai Metro One, led by Anil Ambani’s Reliance Infrastructure, began work on the 11.4 km Andheri-Versova-Ghakopar corridor in 2008, two years after it was formally announced. Since then, the project cost has gone up from Rs 2,360 crore to over Rs 4,000 crore.
On May 1, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan flagged off metro trial runs for the Versova-Ghatkopar phase and assured that commuter rides would begin on the route from October.
According to a government source, Reliance Infrastructure sent an application seeking the fare hike to the state urban development department, under which MMRDA falls, a fortnight ago. A senior official in the department said the government was closely studying the application as any fare hike at this juncture would appear as a move to favour a private player.
“We have sought opinion of the law department and the advocate-general on whether the fare increase demand is legal. The question of approving it comes much letter,” he said.
A former MMRDA metropolitan commissioner criticised Reliance’s attempt to charge commuters more. “Mumbai Metro One cannot demand more than one and half times fares charged by BEST. If BEST charges Rs 8, Mumbai Metro can seek Rs 12 at most,” he said.
Source: http://www.mumbaimirror.com/mumbai/others/No-ones-ridden-metro-yet-but-operator-wants-50-fare-hike/articleshow/20468561.cms
Picture: Just to represent, not from mumbai mirror
