Mumbai Metro fares to go up as HC upholds Reliance Infra plea

The Bombay High Court on Thursday cleared the decks for a hike in metro train fares in Mumbai by Reliance Infrastructure, which leads the consortium that runs Mumbai Metro.

A division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice B P Colabawalla rejected an appeal by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority against an earlier order by a single judge bench, which dismissed MMRDA's petition for delaying the fare hike.

The judges also declined to accept MMRDA's request that the promotional fare of Rs10-20 should be continued for another three weeks to allow it file a plea in the Supreme Court.

The Maharashtra government had challenged the fares of Rs10-40 set by the operator on the line linking Ghatkopar in eastern Mumbai to Versova in the west.

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said the Maharashtra government may appeal against the High Court order.

"We are studying the judgment. We are looking into issues like whether the state pleader did not put forth our side properly.

"We want to assure the people that we are with them and if need be, we will appeal against the order," he said.

Reliance Infrastructure claimed in court that it was losing Rs85 lakh a day despite the Mumbai Metro being used by nearly 2.5 lakh commuters, because of the government's decision to cap the fare at Rs13 for the longest distance.

Coming down heavily on the Maharashtra government for delaying the formation of the Fare Fixation Committee by over a year, the court said the company and MMOPL (Mumbai Metro One Pvt Ltd) can increase the fare band by Rs10-Rs40.

The bench said if MMOPL (a joint venture between Reliance Infra and MMRDA) wishes, it can now increase the fares in Mumbai to Rs10, Rs20, Rs30 and Rs40. The current fare band is between Rs. 10 to Rs20.