New Delhi: Mumbai commuters will have to shell a bit more out of their pockets in order to travel in Mumbai Metro. The travel fare for 11.4 km Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar will be raised from Friday ranging between Rs 10 and 40.
On Thursday, the Bombay high court agreed to Reliance Infrastructure-led Mumbai Metro One Pvt. Ltd. to raise the fare charges in Mumbai Metro.
The court dismissed the plea of Maharashtra government and Mumbai Metro One Private Limited (MMOPL) alike of not increasing the charges and continuing with the highest fare of Rs 13. The court observed that R-Infra had been incurring losses upto Rs 85 lakh daily that would be limited to Rs 62 Lakh per day after the hike in fares is made.
Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) had initially filed a plea against the hike in charges that got rejected by single judge. Now, when the government agency again filed a plea against the single judge order, the A division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice Burgess Colabawalla dismissed the appeal.
The High Court also rejected MMRDA plea to grant stay on this order so that they could challenge it in Apex Court but HC did not allow this. The High court has further asked the Metro Fare Fixation Committee to finalize a fare structure within free months.
MMRDA took R-Infra to the court seeking that the fare charges should remain as per the concession agreement from Rs 9 to Rs 13.
