Bombay High Court gives government ultimatum on Metro fares

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday gave an ultimatum to the union government on setting up of the fare fixation committee to finalize Mumbai Metro fares by November 30. The court said that if the government did not meet the deadline it would decide on the matter.

A division bench of chief justice Mohit Shah and justice MS Sonak
said, "If you (union government) do not form the committee by then, then we will decide on the issue and consider whether they (Mumbai Metro One Private Ltd) should be allowed to collect the fares they are charging."

At the last hearing, the court had asked the union government to file an affidavit by September 18, informing it about the steps being taken to form the fare committee. But the counsel for the union government sought more time to file the affidavit and this irked the judges.

In July, the court had asked the government to make clear its stand on the fare committee. "If the fare fixation committee is not appointed and does not take a decision till November 30, the court will consider the prayer on behalf of Mumbai Metro One Private Ltd (MMOPL) for fare collection," the court had said.

Counsels for RInfra and MMOPL, which is a joint venture between RInfra and MMRDA, had informed the court that they would continue the promotional fares of Rs10, Rs15 and Rs20 till December 31.

MMOPL had initially agreed to charge promotional fares till July 31. That was extended till September 30 and then to December 31.

The matter is being heard on an appeal by MMRDA challenging a single-bench order of the court that denied the state government the right to decide the fares. MMRDA had also challenged the new regular fares declared by Reliance Infra.

But justice RD Dhanuka dismissed the petition saying MMOPL had the right to decide the fares till the fare committee arrived at a decision.

According to MMRDA, the consortium had agreed on a structure whereby the fares would be Rs9 (up to 3km), Rs11 (from 3 to 8km) and Rs13 (for more than 8km). MMOPL, however, set the initial fares at Rs10, Rs20, Rs30 and Rs40.

The judge, while refusing to stay the fares, observed: "Perusal of the agreement (between the parties), indicates that MMOPL is empowered to fix the fares till this is decided by the fare fixation committee. Prima facie, the fares at the time of opening are to be fixed by MMOPL and not the state government."