A 66 per cent hike in the Delhi metro fares was approved by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on Monday. While currently the minimum and maximum fares are at Rs 8 and Rs 30 respectively, the 66 per cent hike will make them both Rs 10 and Rs 50, respectively. The fare will most likely be introduced from Wednesday.
To simplify the fare structure, the panel recommended ticket pricing to be in Rs 10, Rs 15, Rs 20, Rs 30, Rs 40 and Rs 50 format. “The fare revision has been long overdue and we have been demanding it. There are increasing operational costs like salaries and DA of employees,” a DMRC official had said when the hike was first proposed in September 2016.
“In 2002, when the Metro began operations, the operating ratio was 0.42, which means we saved almost 60 per cent of the revenue. Today, the operating ratio is 0.67, which leaves us with 33 per cent in savings. Of those savings, we have to pay off installments of the Rs 30,000 crore loan taken from Jica, the Japanese company which financed the project,” the official had said.
The official had also said that the Metro’s operating ratio — the ratio of cost of operation to savings and profit — had fallen to 50 per cent of what it was in 2002.
The panel was headed by the Urban Development Secretary Rajiv Gauba. A hike was last approved in 2009 when the minimum and maximum fares were increased from Rs 6 and Rs 22 to Rs 8 and Rs 30 respectively.