Tejasvi Surya asks Siddaramaiah to send letter to Centre seeking review of Bengaluru metro fare hike

The Bangalore South MP, who Union Power Minister Manohar Lal Khattar told reporters that the latter agreed to review the fare hike.

New Delhi: Bangalore South BJP Lok Sabha member Tejasvi Surya on Wednesday said Union Power Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has assured him to constitute a fresh price fixation committee if the state government made a plea to review the metro fare hike.

Tejasvi, who met Khattar and Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry officials here on Tuesday to appraise the fall out of the metro rail fare hike issue, told reporters that the Union Minister agreed to review the fare hike. "However, the request has to come from the state government to initiate the process," he said.

"Since the state government made a request to revise the fare earlier, the Ministry had formed a price fixation committee committee. The fare hike was made based on the committee's recommendation as the government has no option but to accept the panel report once it is submitted,” he said.

Admitting that the committee hiked the fare exorbitantly, he said if the state government sent one more request to the Ministry seeking review of the fare hike, the Ministry agreed to form another committee immediately.

He urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to send one more letter to the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry to review the current fare hike and form another price fixation committee.

Ever since the fare hike was introduced, the metro has witnessed less daily footfall, adding that these things have been appraised to the Union Minister.