Bengaluru Metro Costliest In Country Due To Fare Fixation Anomalies: Tejasvi Surya
Bengaluru metro travel now costs nearly twice as much as in Delhi, Mumbai, and Chennai, leading to a reduction in the number of metro users, the BJP MP said.
Bengaluru Metro has become the costliest in the country, thanks to the state government's "negligence" in correcting mistakes caused by anomalies in fare fixation, Bengaluru South BJP MP Tejasvi Surya said on Saturday.
Saying that the earlier fare fixation committee committed many blunders, unscientific analysis as a result of which the Bengaluru metro prices became "sky high", the MP said, the demand is that the state government initiate the process to appoint a new fare fixation committee, which will scientifically assess the rate that needs to be levied on tickets.
Only based on the new fare fixation committee's recommendations, the proposed February fare hike should come into effect, he insisted.
"The state government, if it does not heed to all the demands and cries of the commuters and if it goes ahead with this unscientific and anti-public second time fare hike, at every metro station lakhs of metro users will join hands to protest," he added.
To a question on the state government blaming the centre for fare hike, when it happened last time, Surya said, the responsibility of fixing the fare is not dependent on the state or the central government, it is dependent primarily on the fare fixation committee, which is constituted at the instance of the state government's request.
"There are not one but ten letters written by the state government and MDs of BMRCL requesting the central government to constitute a fare fixation committee. It is on the state government's request that the committee was constituted. Today you (state) are blaming the central government, but not accepting accountability for what is primarily your duty and your fault," he said.
Questioning, if the central government is the authority which will hike the metro fare across the country, then why is it that metro prices have not increased in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Kochi, commensurate to the increase that has taken place in Bengaluru, Surya said, "If it were a political conspiracy like how the Congress is trying to portray it to be, why there is no hike in cities, of the states that face election, like Chennai and Kolkata?"
Saying that if the centre intended to bring bad name to state governments, they would have increased metro fare in Kolkata and Chennai, he accused the state government of "blatant lying".