Earlier this week, the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) brought major relief to the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (BMRCL) by approving a Re. 1 per unit reduction from the existing tariff, contrary to the upward revision in tariff for other categories of electricity consumers.
This means that the BMRCL will now have to shell out less on power to run Namma Metro operations with a concessional tariff of ₹5 per unit.
However, consumers will continue paying what they usually do as the BMRCL has decided not to pass on the benefit of the concessional tariff to them. The minimum fare for metro passengers (buying tokens) is ₹10 and the maximum is ₹60.
The KERC had justified the move to reduce the tariff for BMRCL saying that the metro rail corporation manages the entire infrastructure and the only role the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company has is in supplying power.
BMRCL Managing Director Mahendra Jain said, “The revision of fares is a matter which is deliberated by the Audit Committee of the Board, and decided with approval of the board and the government. Therefore, any proposal for fare revision has to be decided at the appropriate level. However, keeping in mind our overall financial situation, and considering that our fares are fairly competitive, presently, there is no proposal to revise the fares.”
The BMRCL uses about 65 lakh units of electricity every month and the expenditure is around ₹5.5 crore. “The reduction in electricity tariff by ₹1 per unit is a very welcome and environment-friendly move to incentivise electric-based mobility solutions, and will save us about ₹65 lakh per month. There will be some additional savings due to waiver of time of the day rates,” he said.
Why then will these savings not reflect in the fares that metro passengers pay?
Mr. Jain explained that the provisional operations and maintenance (O&M) expenditure of BMRCL annually is around ₹240 crore, and the revenue — both fare and non-fare — is around ₹333 crore.
“We incur financial charges, such as interest, of around ₹111 crore. Therefore, there is net cash loss of around ₹30 crore annually. Further, this does not include the loan principal repayment, which is approximately ₹350 crores. Our operational expenses are rising mainly on account of higher security, higher staff costs, longer operational hours during off-peak hours, higher maintenance due to older rolling stock, etc.” he added.
