The fare hike for the Hyderabad Metro rail, which is a crucial part of Hyderabad city transport, is almost finalized. L&T officials are moving forward to avoid losses and likely to be hiked upto 30 percent. Presently, the minimum ticket price in the metro is Rs. 10, while the maximum ticket price is Rs. 60. They are likely to be increased upto Rs 15 and Rs 75, respectively.
The ticket rates are expected to be increased based on the report given by the Fare Determination Committee (FFC) appointed by the central government two years ago. To this end, a meeting will be held with Chief Minister Revanth Reddy on the 8th of this month seeking approval of the proposal. Since this issue is already in the CM’s eyes, he is expected to respond positively.
At the same time, arrangements are being made to implement the increased fares from the 10th of this month. It is known that the first phase of the project in Hyderabad was built by L&T. The work was started in 2012 at a cost of Rs. 14,132 crore in a private-public partnership and completed in November 2017. Presently, 1,200 services are running daily, with 4.80 lakh passengers. 5.10 lakh passengers travel on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays.
L&T has announced that the Covid lockdown has further damaged the company, which has led to a total debt of Rs 6500 crore. It is planning to adjust by increasing charges to reduce the debt burden. The company, which used to earn more than Rs 80 lakh per day before Covid, has been struggling since then. It is expressing its concern that passenger traffic has decreased from 2020 to 2022 and that it is not getting the expected income from malls and advertisements.
At the same time, commercial complexes have been built in only four or five areas of the 267 acres of land given by the government under Transport Oriented Development (TOD). 18 million square feet of commercial space is available on the 67-km metro route. Only 8 million spaces have been used in seven and a half years. In this context, L&T has not yet designed any special activity to bring commercial space to the market.
Presently, Metro is earning up to Rs. 1500 crore annually through metro operations, mall rentals and advertisements. Meanwhile, after the Congress government came to power, the burden of free travel for women in RTC buses under the name of Mahalaxmi scheme has also fallen on Metro, L&T officials have been saying.
