Mumbai: Right to information (RTI) activist Anil Galgali has alleged Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis misled Mumbaikars on the issue of the appointment of a fare fixation committee (FFC) for the first corridor of the Mumbai Metro, operated by Mumbai Metro One Pvt. Ltd (MMOPL) in which Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Infrastructure Ltd owns majority stake.

While allowing MMOPL to go ahead with a fare hike on the 11.4km first line of the Mumbai Metro between the western suburb of Versova and the eastern suburb of Ghatkopar, the Bombay high court rejected Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority’s (MMRDA) request to give the central government time till 31 January for the formation of the fare committee.

The high court observed, in its earlier hearing in July last year, that it had given time to the central government till 31 December to appoint the committee but the central government failed to do so.

Text messages and emails sent to officials in the chief minister’s office remained unanswered.

An MMOPL spokesman declined to comment saying, “The specific RTI query has nothing to do with the company."

On 12 January, the Maharashtra chief minister tweeted that the committee was appointed after his meeting with union urban development minister M. Venkaiah Naidu.

In a release issued by Galgali, he has claimed, “While replying to his RTI (right to information) application of 21 January, the union government’s urban development (UD) ministry has said no such committee has been formed. This is a clear case of taking Mumbaikars for a ride by the chief minister."

The MMRDA nodal agency for the Mumbai Metro project and MMOPL have been at loggerheads over fare fixation since the first line opened in June last year. However, after a judgment by the Bombay high court, the Mumbai Metro’s fares are now between 10 to 40—much higher than the rates of 9 to 13 fixed in the agreement between MMOPL and MMRDA.

MMOPL claims it is economically unviable to operate services at those rates as the cost of the project got hiked due to time over-runs which were beyond its control, such as permission from the railway ministry, permission from the environment ministry, shifting of utilities, and the right of way. The final project cost of the Mumbai Metro’s line 1 was pegged at 4,321 crore as against initial estimates of 2,356 crore by MMOPL.

MMOPL also claimed the initial agreement signed between MMOPL and MMRDA was governed by the Indian Tramways Act of 1902. However subsequently both MMRDA and UD ministry of the central government accepted MMOPL’s proposal that the agreement between MMRDA and MMOPL should be governed by the Indian Metro Act of 2009, which gave the right to fix the initial fare to the developer— MMOPL in this case.

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