Urban Development Minister says increasing fare necessary

The city and its government’s hope for an interim relief from a planned increase in metro train fares suffered a jolt after Union Urban Development Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that the hike was long overdue.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has stiffly opposed the planned hike, to come into effect from October 10, and claimed in a letter to that it would be a violation of the recommendations of the fare-fixation panel.

‘Risk financial crunch’

Responding to the letter, Mr. Puri warned that any delay in hiking fares could lead the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to suffer the same as the Delhi Transport Corporation, which has been suffering from a financial crunch.

“There has been no increase in fares for the past eight years. You tell me how would we run the Metro otherwise? One way could be that we let it go the way the DTC has. We all know how it is struggling to stay afloat. The bus fares have not been revised and we know that its fleet has a shortfall of 2,000 buses,” Mr. Puri said.

“As soon as I received the letter, I told the concerned Secretary to go through it. The CM has expressed his wish that the burden of the fares should not fall on the taxpayer. Officials are holding meetings and we are trying to find a solution,” the Minister added.

Input costs up: DMRC

On Saturday, the DMRC had issued a statement explaining their rationale behind the move. “Since 2009, there has been no fare hike whereas the input cost has increased by over 105% in energy, 139% in staff cost and by 213% for repair and maintenance,” read the statement, which also mentioned the outstanding loan the corporation has to repay.

“The DMRC has taken a huge loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency and a payment of ₹26,760 crore is still outstanding, which has to be paid back. The DMRC has to also provide for depreciation and replacement of various assets such as the trains, which have a life of 30 years and will have to be replaced subsequently. Despite operating efficiently, the DMRC is making a net loss of ₹378 crore in view of the above factors,” the statement read.

Dirty politics by AAP: BJP

Meanwhile, Delhi BJP President Manoj Tiwari and Leader of the Opposition in Assembly Vijender Gupta, in a statement, accused the Aam Aadmi Party government of evading its responsibility on the issue of metro fare hike and trying to mislead the people by playing “dirty politics“.

The BJP leaders said that the Delhi government has a 50 per cent stake in DMRC and there can be no fare hike without its consent.

(With PTI inputs)