A day ahead of the commencement of the services on the phase-I stretch of the Mumbai Metro Railway, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Saturday joined issue with Mumbai Metro One Pvt ltd (MMOPl) over the proposed hike in fare structure and threatened to boycott the inaugural function if the latter chose to increase the fares than what had been one quoted originally in the tender.
Hours after the MMOPl announced its plans to start commercial operations of the Mumbai metro from Sunday, the chief minister accused the Opposition BJP of trying to facilitate Anil Ambani’s Reliance Infrastructure, which holds 69 per cent equity in the joint venture MMOPl (in which the state-run MMRDA and Veolia Transport are partners too), “increase” the metro fares “three to four” times than what had been quoted originally by the private company in its tender.
“I have been asked to inaugurate the Mumbai metro at 9.30 am on Sunday. The state government has decided not to hike the fares. My charge is that political pressure is being used to help Reliance company increase the fares by three to four times. I would like the BJP to come clean on what role it is playing in Reliance Infra hiking fares,” the chief minister said, as he threatened to stay from the metro inaugural function if the MMOPl chose to go ahead with the increased fares.
Talking to media persons here, Chavan said: “ I have agreed to inaugurate the metro service on the condition that the company sticks to the tariff mentioned in the tender. If it wants to go for a hike, it should approach the tariff fixation committee justifying the reasons".The chief minister said that the state-run MMRDA had already moved the Bombay High Court against the fare hike proposed by the MMOPl and the matter would come up for hearing on Monday.