Chennai: A petition has been filed in Madras high court seeking a direction to Chennai Metro Rail Limited, (CMRL) to fix metro rail ticket fare on par with that of the suburban electric trains and to fix minimum fare at Rs 5.
‘MGR’ Viswanathan of Pattabiram, an ardent follower of former Chief Minister MG Ramachandran, has filed the PIL. Viswanathan got help from MGR for his studies and completed M.Ed and also Diploma in School Management. With the help of former CM,Viswanathan was recruited as a teacher in a government school.
While referring to the election manifesto of the BJP in the last Lok Sabha poll, Viswanathan said “item no 8 in the manifesto mentioned about fixing the ticket fare of CMRL at low level on par with the suburban electric train fares.
The Southern Railways collects '5 for traveling in the suburban trains from Chennai Central (Park) to Thrisulam, (near Chennai Air Port) covering a distance of 18 km and Rs 10 for traveling from Chennai Beach to Tambaram covering a distance of about 27 km.
Whereas the CMRL collects a fare of Rs 60 from passengers to commute from Chennai Central Metro Railway Station to Chennai Airport in the Metro Rail. “This is 6 to 12 times higher than the suburban train ticket fare,” he said.
Viswanathan recalled that item 9 in the manifesto assured the people about taking over of all the metro rails in the country by the department of railways in order to remove the domination of private sector and the contractors, and to provide employment opportunities to youth.
He made a representation to the authorities on various occasions. As there was no response from the authorities he filed the present PIL. The matter will come up for hearing shortly.
