Union Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal today announced an increase in railway fares for passengers across categories citing poor finances of the railways. However, fares of Kolkata Metro, the railway zone with worst operating ratio of over 300, was surprisingly untouched.
There was an initial confusion over whether there was any hike in metro fare, as Bansal could not give any definite answer on this during the press conference in Delhi. Later, railway ministry spokesperson Chandralekha Mukherjee clarified, “There is no hike in Kolkata metro fare yet. I can not comment whether there will be any hike or not”
The fact that Bansal's announcement today had no mention about hike metro fare, came as no less than a surprise, to Metro Bhawan, the headquarter of Kolkata Metro. “The metro fare structure has not been revised since 2002. It was expected that the metro fare will go up, when there will an increase in overall rail fare. This is surprising,” an official said.
In fact, a committee was formed at the ministry level to review the fares of Kolkata metro after Banswal took over the charge. Also, Radhey Shyam, General Manager, Metro Railway, recently went public speaking about the need of fare hike to sustain services.
After the recent hike in bus fares in the state, metro is the cheapest form of public transport with a minimum fare of Rs 4.
According to Kolkata Metro spokesperson, it had to spent nearly 300 to earn every Rs 100 in 2011-12. The The revenue gap has only widened up following extension of the metro lines from Tollygunge to Garia in southern part of the city. In 2010-11, Kolkata Metro had an operating ration of 248.
