Bengaluru: The Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) has rejected repeated requests to reduce fares, saying it can do little to recalibrate prices in ‘Namma Metro’, ThePrint has learnt.
In a closed-door meeting with public representatives Tuesday, BMRCL officials made it clear that any recalibration of prices was likely to set a “disastrous trend” and that they would consider any changes only in the next fare revision review.
“This time it is not possible, but next review we will consider,” the officials told a delegation of public representatives at the meeting to which ThePrint had access.
Namma Metro last hiked fares in February, which, according to Tejasvi Surya, the Bengaluru South member of parliament, makes it the most expensive among all Indian cities.
Initially, the metro refused to release the report of the fare fixation committee (FFC), constituted on 7 September 2024, to recommend a revised fare structure for metro trains operated by the BMRCL.
The BJP MP approached the court to get it released. It was alleged that BMRCL increased fares by 105 percent as against recommendations of around 51 percent.
Surya said that while a 20-25 km ride costs Rs 80 in the Bengaluru Metro, the Delhi Metro charges just Rs 64 for 32 km. Similarly, a 12-18 km ride in the Bengaluru Metro costs Rs 60, while in Mumbai, it costs half the amount.
“If you (downward) revise it now, the imminent hike in February can be softened,” Surya told BMRCL officials in the meeting that included three Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs from the city.
We are all concerned about the status of ongoing metro projects.
Yesterday, I sought answers to these from @BMRCL officials.
Following are the responses received:
Pink Line: Contrary to what the DCM has posted, officials clarified that only the 7 km elevated stretch of the… pic.twitter.com/2puJ4u0Uvp
— Tejasvi Surya (@Tejasvi_Surya) November 5, 2025
Mobility experts say Metro’s decision to go for steep hikes is counterintuitive to any larger measures to encourage daily commuters to prioritise public transport over private vehicles.
Successive governments have announced big-ticket mass transit projects, from an extension of metro lines to a suburban rail project, to ease congestion in Bengaluru, which has become synonymous with its unbearable traffic jams.
But steep hikes in metro fares, coupled with long delays in completing metro lines, poor connectivity, the stalled suburban rail project and stagnating bus fleets, are forcing commuters to rely more on private transport, worsening congestion in India’s IT capital.
The numbers
The “general principle”, according to the Metro, is that metro costs should be about 1.5 times that of an AC bus service.
According to BMRCL, it costs Rs 70 by metro for a distance of 15-20 km compared with Rs 40 in an AC bus and Rs 28 in a non-AC bus. For 20-25 km, the metro fare is Rs 80, while an AC bus is Rs 45 and a non-AC bus is Rs 30.
Surya alleged that BMRCL used the wrong base year when it calculated the fare hikes. When determining the increase, BMRCL used 2016-17 as its base year, when 30.03 km of the metro was operational.
“The miscalculation by BMRCL appears to derive from taking incorrect Maintenance and Administration expenses of 2017-18 and dividing them by the route kilometres of 2017-18 (42.3 km). This approach is not only inconsistent with the formula but also established metro norms and practices,” Surya said in an official letter to Metro.
He said that the 2023-24 revision also employed an incorrect methodology, as it used 70.70 km while 73.81 km was operational as of 31 March 2024, resulting in an overstatement.
“As a result of these errors, BMRCL has presented the percentage change in Maintenance and Administration costs as 366 percent, whereas the actual change is approximately 110 -118.5 percent.”
Going by details provided to the delegation, BMRCL has justified the fare increase based on its own increase in Operations and Maintenance (O&M). The metro said that its biggest O&M expenses are staff costs at 61 percent, energy at 19 percent, and maintenance & administration at 20 percent.
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The maths
The BMRCL is relying heavily on fares to fund the metro’s activities.
Surya said even though the average fare increase remained 51.5 percent, the most common journeys taken by commuters, in the 8-15 km range, have seen an unjustified hike of close to 70 percent.
According to BMRCL, its revenue projections (excluding discounts) for 2025-26 are Rs 1,049 crore, but its expenses in the same fiscal are Rs 1,000 crore, leaving it with around Rs 49 crore of net profits. But this number is projected to rise steadily in subsequent years, data shows.
Its projected operating profits, as a result of more operational lines, are expected to double in 2026-27 to Rs 80 crore, Rs 398 crore (2027-28), Rs 346 crore (2028-29) and Rs 395 crore (2029-30).
However, its loan repayments are also likely to rise.
In 2025-26, BMRCL is projected to repay Rs 775.05 crore in loan servicing (principal & interest), with this amount estimated to rise to Rs 2,347.92 crore in 2028-29. In the same period, depreciation is expected to go up from Rs 885.42 crore (2025-26) to Rs 1,594.61 crore (2028-29).
Satish Reddy, the BJP legislator from Bommanahalli, suggested BMRCL officials to reduce the tenure of naming rights for metro stations from 30 years to around 5-10 years, as it would encourage more people to take up this option.
Naming rights allow companies to partner with the Metro to help fund the construction of a station in exchange for branding.
BMRCL said it can rake in about Rs 100 crore with longer-term agreements, while shorter agreements would only fetch Rs 2-3 crore. Moreover, changing the names of stations frequently would be an arduous task that would confuse commuters.
Officials said that they are exploring ways to monetise advertisements, but they can do so only within their stations and trains. Anything outside metro stations or even on pillars has to be shared with the city corporation.
Ring-side view
Satya Arikutram, a Bengaluru-based mobility expert, said the Metro got its calculation wrong in the FFC and that remaining adamant about not revising it is an “insult to commuters”.
“Thanks to you meekly paying high fares, BMRCL revenue this year will see 213.5% uplift from 2023-24 to 1799 crs. Unfair fare hike is extraction,” Arikutram said in a post on X. “We fund O&M, interest payment, loan repayment & revenue losses due to BMRCL delays.”
He said the metro is public transport and it should be made more affordable.
“Commuters are already taxed with specific cess to fund the metro construction costs, loan obligations and asset replacement. BMRCL’s ‘unstated’ fare policy is a sharp departure from this well-established norm. Apart from making commuters pay twice for the same asset, BMRCL’s fare policy also dilutes metro’s public transport function as it prices out many commuters and pushes them to private vehicle dependency,” he said.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)