Bengaluru Metro fares have been hiked by 50%, and the public outrage is completely justified. Metro as a transport system is always costlier than buses in any city, but poor decisions over the years by the state government and BMRCL made it worse.
Building Metro in a city where land is at a premium requires massive investment, and the operational costs remain relatively high. More than 40% of India’s urban development budget is being spent on metros, according to the parliament.
The outcome has always been dismal, marked by poor patronage, low ridership, steep ticket prices, poor accessibility, and unfeasible routes. The only bright spot seems to be the Delhi Metro, but even it has faced significant financial challenges over the years. Experts say that even when fully developed and functional, Metro systems can only serve about 15-20% of a city’s population. This means Metro operators must find a way to cover high expenses and repay the loan as well.
Increasing ticket price is one of the unpopular ways. The other being non-fare revenue like Advertisements, rent from shops, consulting etc… Here, BMRCL fell short. I looked at its 2023-24 financial report, and the company generated just ₹50 crore in non-fare revenue, making up only 5% of the total revenue of approximately ₹1000 crore.
On the contrary, Maha-Metro which oversees Metro operations in Maharastra is aiming to generate 50% of the revenue through non-fare box revenue. While they’re still not close to reaching it, the point is that this is likely the target percentage BMRCL should aim for.
Then, there is decision to build double-decker flyovers to cater to private vehicles. Naturally, this will be more expensive & cause delays compared to building a regular Metro structure. Why wasn’t a toll applied to vehicles when it’s being proposed for new tunnel roads?
And who ends up paying for this needless spending? The metro passengers of course.
The central govt sensed this problem of over-spending on Metro systems and in 2019, it released a recommendation document for cities. It suggested “Metro Lite” instead.
The idea was to encourage cities to build more affordable solutions that wouldn’t burden them in the long run.
Metrolite was supposed to be an at-grade solution which could have significantly cut down costs and improved coverage and accessibility in the city.
In 2019, the same year, the state’s Comprehensive Mobility Plan proposed this Metrolite system for the Sarjapur Road-Hebbal corridor. But BMRCL ignored the findings of report, and in 2024, it was upgraded to a full Metro system, raising both costs and time.
Given the high expenditure, the axe of loan repayment is hanging over BMRCL’s neck – “10422”Cr to be precise. While BMRCL may temporarily roll back the fare hike due to protests, its ongoing poor financial health remains a significant concern.
What can the state govt do to fix this?
1. Add city-buses fast. Its cheap.
2. Try other low-cost transport systems.
3. Speed up work on KRIDE(Sub-urban rail).
4. Cut down spending on tunnel roads, flyovers etc, and divert it to BMRCL and other public transport systems.
5. Encourage BMRCL to explore and increase non-fare revenue.
