Metro ride costlier from Friday

The fare hike would be between Rs 2 and Rs 8,depending on the distance a commuter is travelling.

The average increase would be in the range of Rs 3 to Rs 6,accounting to an increase of 36 per cent. The existing 10 per cent discount on smart cards will continue but the rate of tourist cards will go up,it was decided.

Though there will be no change in the slab formulation up to 24 to 27 km,to encourage long distance travel the fare fixation committee has increased the distance of five subsequent slabs but limited their fare increase to Rs 8. For example,the earlier slab of ‘more than 39 km’ has been changed to ‘more than 44 km’ and the fare for this slab has been increased from Rs 22 to Rs 30.

Metro had last increased fares in December 2005.

The hike this time was decided by a three-member regulatory authority constituted by the Centre and chaired by Justice (retd) E Padmanabhan.

“We felt the need to revise fares as the Metro network has expanded from 65 km to 165 km — nearly two and half times — and there has been a rise in all components of cost. The Consumer Price Index has also increased,” DMRC’s finance director R N Joshi said. “There is an increase of over 30 per cent each in establishment cost,energy cost and maintenance cost.

“It has been seen that in most metros across the world the Consumer Price Index plays a dominant role in fare fixation. But despite the hikes,Delhi Metro has the lowest fares compared to all other metros,barring the Kolkata Metro.”

Tourist cards with a validity of a single day have been increased from Rs 70 to Rs 100; the rate for a card with three-day validity has been increased from Rs 200 to Rs 250.

Joshi said while fixing the revised fares the regulatory authority took into account two basic factors: affordability of fares by public and long-term sustainability of the Metro system. “As in the earlier committees,attempts have been made to strike a balance between the two,” Joshi said.

“The committee also took note of the fact that DMRC has got huge debt repayment commitments in the coming years. Its interest and loan repayment shall be in the range of Rs 500 crore to Rs 600 crore per year after the opening of Phase-II sections.”

HIKE HIGHLIGHTS
* Hike between Rs 2 and Rs 8,depending on distance
* Average increase in range of Rs 3 to Rs 6
* 10% discount on smart card to continue
* Rate of tourist cards to go up: single-day cards go up from Rs 70 to Rs 100,three-day validity card to go from Rs 200 to Rs 250

REVISION PROCESS
* December 2002 Metro begins Delhi operations
* December 2003 First fare fixation committee constituted; revised fares adopted from March 31,2004
* December 31,2005 Fares recommended by second fare fixation committee made effective
* June 2009 Third fare fixation committee constituted; new fares to be effective from November 13,2009

… Meanwhile,technical snag delays Metro trains
Due to some technical problems,the Metro trains ran behind schedule on Tuesday evening. Metro officials said the delay was “only for a few minutes” as the serial number of a train was lost due to software malfunction. “Since the number of a train was lost due to some software malfunction,other trains also could not run. We then reset the serial numbers of all running trains and this caused some delay,” an official said. But passengers alleged that trains were delayed for around 15 to 20 minutes. Rajan,a software engineer,said he had to wait for at least 20 minutes to board a Metro train from Rajiv Chowk.