BJP MP Tejasvi Surya raises Bengaluru Namma Metro fare hike issue in Lok Sabha, demands 'immediate review'

New Delhi: BJP leader and Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya on Tuesday demanded an "immediate review" of hike in 'Namma Metro' fares as it is impacting common people and making it the "most expensive" metro in the country.

Raising the issue during Zero Hour in Lok Sabha, he said the Karnataka government had recently requested to set up a fare fixation committee to review fares of Bengaluru Metro. "This committee has come up with a proposal to raise the fares and in some instances a hike of over 100%," he said.

"It has greatly impacted the middle class in Bengaluru city, who use the metro as a means of transport to work and other things. This has made Bengaluru Metro the most expensive metro in the country. My request to the concerned authority is to immediately review the anomalies in the Fare Fixation Committee report and rationalise the fares so that the poor, common people and middle class can afford," he said.

Later, Surya also met Housing and Urban Affairs Minister ML Khattar to apprise him of the fare fixation issue.

Surya said public transport must be affordable and it must be accessible to the common public.

"Governments must work to incentivise the adoption and usage of public transport and discourage private transport. If the fares of public transport become unaffordable then we are encouraging people to use private transport that only adds to the congestion of the city," he said.