Credit: DH Photo
New Delhi: BJP Bengaluru South Lok Sabha member Tejasvi Surya on Thursday met Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and requested him to reconstitute the Fare Fixation Committee (FFC) to decide on the Namma Metro fare hike.
He also urged that the current fare hike proposal be withheld until the new committee decides.
In his letter to the Union Minister, Surya said that, based on a request by the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL), the FFC had recommended that an annual fare revision of up to 5 per cent may be considered to help the organisation meet its operational and maintenance expenses.
However, the BMRCL announced its annual fare revision on February 5, 2026, which will come into effect from February 9, 2026. As per this revision, ticket prices for various slabs will see an increase of 21 per cent to 25 per cent, with the highest fare rising to Rs 95 for all travel above 25 km, he said.
“Considering the burden that a fare increase would impose on the general public of Bengaluru, I kindly request that a new Fare Fixation Committee be constituted for Bengaluru Metro to rectify the highlighted anomalies and rationalise the fares,” he said.
The 2025 FFC for Bengaluru Metro recommended a fare revision effective from February 9, 2025, for Namma Metro. This revision, ostensibly calculated on the basis of the 2016 Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Fare Fixation Committee's formula, has resulted in an average increase of fares by 50 per cent and raised the maximum fare from Rs 60 to Rs 90. This has also made Bengaluru Metro the most expensive in the country, he said.
However, a perusal of the FFC report reveals multiple arithmetic errors in the revised fare calculation. These errors arise mainly due to the selection of the wrong base year of 2016-17 for the computation of operating costs, resulting in a deviation from the standard fare revision methodology.
Even though these errors have been flagged multiple times and in in-person meetings, the BMRCL is yet to correct the anomalies. Commuters, as a result, are continuing to be overcharged for their metro travel, he said in the letter.
Separately, Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha member P C Mohan has urged the state government to withhold the fare hike proposal to reduce the burden on commuters.