‘Metro fares result of wrong application’

MUMBAI: Fares fixed for the Ghatkopar-Versova metro corridor is a “wrong outcome on a wrong application”, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority said

MUMBAI: Fares fixed for the Ghatkopar-Versova metro corridor is a “wrong outcome on a wrong application”, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority said on Saturday.

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Senior advocate Aspi Chinoy told a division bench of Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and justice MS Sonak the metro rail operator — Mumbai Metro One Private Limited — sought to convert the public utility project into a commercial, profit-making affair by including at least five items of expenses in its application to fix fares . It is not a project to carry a lakh of air-conditioned car users. It is meant for the general public.

The bench is conducting final hearings on a bunch of petitions challenging fares fixed by the panel.

The Fare Fixation Committee fixed fares in the Rs 10-110 band. After its report, MMOPL announced it will increase fares by Rs5 from December 2015. This was withheld after MMRDA approached the HC.

Section 33 of the Metro Rail Act says metro fares should be fixed by a Centre-appointed panel. MMRDA argued while this overrides the clause in the Concession Agreement between MMRDA and MMOPL, it does not wipe out the agreement. MMRDA said the operator was bound by terms that say it was not to earn anything except operational costs through fares till 2019. Chinoy said while the agreement envisaged charging fares at one-and-a- half times that of ordinary BEST buses, in its application to the panel, the operator sought fares at a par with AC buses.