Bengaluru, Feb 5 (IANS) Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) on Thursday officially hiked fare by five per cent, and the revised rates will come into effect from February 9.

BMRCL Public Relations Officer B.L. Yashwant Chauhan stated, “As per the Fare Fixation Committee, every year, according to a formula, the calculation is made on a percentage. A maximum of 5 per cent and a minimum of 4 per cent hike is made. When the calculations are made, a 10 per cent hike is required. As it can’t be implemented, as per the FFC, only 5 per cent hike could be done. The minimum fare of Rs 10 will be hiked to Rs 11, and a maximum fare of Rs 90 will be increased to Rs 95.”

The statement said, “The FFC, while recommending the revised fare structure for BMRCL, observed that revision of fare after 7.5 years and optimisation of fare zones from 29 to 10 has resulted in an average increase of 51.55 per cent. With a view to avoiding such a situation of infrequent and steep fare increases in future, the committee has recommended in its report to revise the fare annually by having a transparent Annual Automatic Fare Revision Formula linked with Operation and Management Cost or 5 per cent per annum, whichever is lower by rounding off to the nearest rupee.

This mechanism helps with the introduction of a small annual fare revision.

In keeping with the recommendations of the FFC, which is binding on BMRCL, it is hereby notified that Annual Automatic Fare Revision will be implemented with effect from February 9, on expiry of 1 year from the date of implementation of FFC’s recommended fares by BMRCL.

The marginal increase is a minimum of Rs 1 and a maximum of Rs 5 across 10 fare zones on its entire network of 96.10 kilometres, the BMRCL stated.

“Based on the Audited Financial Data for the financial year 2024-25 compared with base data of the financial year 2023-24, the formula-based index indicates a cost increase of 10.20 per cent; however, the fare revision has been restricted to only 5 per cent, in line with the FFC stipulation.

Now, the zero to two kilometres metro travel will cost Rs 11.2 instead of Rs 10, Rs 21.4 for 4 kms, and so on.

BMRCL stated that it will continue all existing commuter-friendly discounts for smart-card/NCMC users, like 5 per cent discount during peak hours, 10 per cent discount during non-peak hours on Sundays and on three National Highways. However, the annual increase of 5 per cent shall apply to tourist cards and group tickets.

The statement said, “BMRCL emphasises that this small annual revision is intended to ensure financial sustainability and service reliability, while avoiding the need for large and sudden fare increases in the future. The approach allows fares to move gradually in line with inflation and operating costs, thereby protecting commuters from the sharp, infrequent hikes.”

–IANS

mka/svn