An in depth evaluation of the Bengaluru Metro Rail Company Restricted’s (BMRCL) fare revision earlier this yr has raised questions on potential calculation errors within the official methodology. In accordance with an city mobility knowledgeable, discrepancies in the way in which working prices have been computed could have resulted in commuters paying considerably greater than justified — by as a lot as 32 per cent.
Following the fare hike in February 2025, Metro passengers are paying a minimal value of Rs 10 and a most of Rs 90, making Bengaluru Metro the most costly within the nation.
The talk over Metro fares traces again to 2016, when the Delhi Metro Rail Company (DMRC) confronted scrutiny for the same subject. On the time, the DMRC justified steep fare will increase on the premise of rising Upkeep and Administration prices. Nevertheless, its calculations have been discovered to be flawed as a result of they in contrast absolute prices throughout years with out accounting for community growth.
Bigger networks naturally have larger prices, and specialists argued {that a} per-kilometre price comparability was the fairer method. The 4th Fare Fixation Committee (FFC) corrected this error, stopping an inflated fare burden on Delhi commuters.
Base calculations ‘distorted’
In Bengaluru’s case, critics allege that the BMRCL has repeated the identical mistake. Whereas the company acknowledged that it used the per-kilometre method, an examination of the figures means that absolute prices have been successfully utilized as a substitute. This, they argue, distorted the bottom calculations and exaggerated the speed of enhance in operational bills. Consultants have additionally identified that this method utterly ignored the truth that Bengaluru’s Metro community expanded considerably from roughly 42 km in 2017 to over 70 km by 2024.
Satya Arikutharam, an unbiased mobility knowledgeable, says, “For example, BMRCL reported price per km pertaining to Repairs and Upkeep (R&M), and Administration prices have been derived from the 2016-17 statements as Rs 0.38 crore per kilometre. However utilizing audited information of 2017-18, when the final fare enhance occurred, the determine ought to have been Rs 0.81 crore per kilometre. The decrease base of 2016-17 inflated the expansion proportion, making price escalation seem larger than it was.”
The impact was substantial. On BMRCL’s numbers, R&M and Administration prices appeared to have risen by 366 per cent, in comparison with the corrected determine of 118.5 per cent, if the suitable base yr of 2017-19 was thought of, Arikutharam provides.
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Consequently, the fare hike requirement was introduced as 105 per cent, whereas corrected calculations based mostly on precise historic information recommend the justified enhance can be nearer to 40 per cent with an annual enhance of 5 per cent till the subsequent assessment. Successfully, the FFC advisable fares are 32 per cent larger than what they should be for almost all of commuters, exhibits the evaluation.
The FFC information additionally exhibits that the precise audited enhance in Bengaluru Metro’s operations and upkeep (O&M) price per kilometre between 2017 and 2024 was 39.6 per cent, however critics level out that the BMRCL and the FFC calculated it as greater than 72 per cent, utilizing a flawed technique that inflated the numbers and justified a 105 per cent fare hike of their desk.
‘Flawed calculations led to 32% extreme fare hike’
In impact, the hole between the right enhance (round 40%) and the overstated determine (about 72%) represents the surplus burden positioned on commuters. Whereas technically this implies the rise was overstated by over 80 per cent, for passengers the impression is less complicated: fares that ought to have gone up by 40 per cent have been raised by 72 per cent, leaving residents paying roughly 32 per cent greater than justified, critics argue.
To place it in on a regular basis phrases, if a Rs 20 ticket ought to have risen to Rs 28, it as a substitute went as much as Rs 34 — an additional Rs 6, or about one-third larger. This implies Bengaluru commuters are successfully bearing a further 32 per cent on their Metro fares as a result of calculation errors.
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Arikutharam added, “Repairs and Upkeep price per km information introduced within the FFC Report reveals that BMRCL used a low base yr in 2017/18 to magnify the rise in prices per kilometre in comparison with 2023/24, which is deceptive. The rise in O&M prices is primarily pushed by community growth and inflation, however BMRCL centered solely on price will increase, overlooking community progress. Because of this, Bengaluru residents are going through a 32 per cent extreme fare hike as a result of flawed calculations. The revised fares needs to be rolled again instantly.”
BMRCL defends charges
The Metro physique, on its half, has defended its methodology. In accordance with S Sivamathan, Director (Finance), BMRCL, the R&M bills within the audited accounts have been adjusted by reclassifying sure outsourced manpower prices. He defined that housekeeping, safety and ticket workplace machine (TOM) employees prices — being outsourced worker bills — have been handled as a part of “salaries and wages,” with modifications within the Client Value Index (CPI) used to seize their impression.
“Equally, energy and gasoline have been categorised beneath power prices and linked on to the speed per unit. On this foundation, the mentioned calculation was correct: from the overall R&M bills of Rs 104.37 crore in 2017–18, we added administration bills of Rs 7.91 crore, deducted energy and gasoline prices of Rs 30.37 crore and outsourced manpower prices of Rs 65.66 crore, leaving a stability of Rs 16.25 crore. Divided by 42.30 route kilometres, this works out to Rs 0.38 crore per km,” Sivamathan instructed The Indian Categorical, sustaining that the right determine was utilized in the FFC report.