In another move that’s bound to upset the common man, Delhi Metro fares are likely to go up again in January 2019, based on the recommendations of a Centre-appointed committee authorised to fix the mass rapid transit's commuting tariff.
The two-phase fare hike effected in May and October 2017 was recommended by the same committee, chaired by Justice (Retd) ML Mehta, which also had the Delhi chief secretary and the additional secretary of the Ministry of Urban Development on board.
In its report, the 4th Fare Fixation Committee (FFC), constituted under the Metro Railway Act, has also recommended an “automatic annual fare revision”, under which commuting tariff will go up by up to seven per cent.
The mechanism, which was also proposed by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) management, will stay in effect till the constitution of the next FFC, which are authorised under the Act to fix metro fares.
The committee recommended that the DMRC revise the fares once a year based on an automatic fare revision formula which takes into account increase in cost of staff, maintenance, energy, and the Consumer Price Index, or seven per cent per annum(in each fare slab), whichever is lower.
It also listed a number of stipulations to go with it including the need for revised fares to be implemented on 1 January every year.
During the tussle over the recent hike with the Arvind Kejriwal government, Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri had claimed that the Centre was in no position to tamper with the recommendations of the FFC as doing so is “legally untenable”.
Subsequently, fares were hiked by up to 100 percent across multiple distance slabs. On 24 November, DMRC’s response to an RTI application found that metro lost three lakh commuters per day following the 10 October hike.
The revelation triggered a slugfest between the Kejriwal government and the Centre. Kejriwal said the fare hike was “killing” the metro and pushing commuters away from it.
Puri maintained that the fall in ridership could not be solely attributed to fare hike and factors such as an extra Sunday, Diwali and Chhath Puja may also have been responsible and also defended the hike saying it was essential for DMRC’s “efficiency”.
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