Don't hike Metro 1 fares, says Kirit Somaiya

Mumbai: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Kirit Somaiya has written a letter to the MMRDA commissioner, demanding that the ticket fare for metro Line 1 (Ghatkopar-Versova) should not be increased.

He has also demanded that there be a review of the current fares and the same be brought down.

Mr Somaiya has alleged that the Mumbai Metro One Project (MMOPL) has not fixed the fares according to the MoU.

In his letter, he has said that the company is facing financial trouble and to overcome other losses, the fare hike has been planned. No official quote was received from the company.

Mr Somaiya demanded, “The metro one should make public the fare fixation committee’s report and go for special audit by the CAG or by forensic audit for the revenue collection.”

There was no official comment received from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority.  

It was reported earlier that MMOPL had been facing losses in the corridor. Since its inception in 2014, the fares had not been revised from the band of Rs 10 to Rs 40.

In 2015, the Mumbai high court in an interim order stayed the proposal of fare hike for MMOPL. In 2017, the Bombay high court quashed the proposal to hike metro fares.

In 2018, the Reliance Infra-led MMOPL withdrew the discount of Rs 2.5 per trip on its return journey tickets.