The Bombay High Court has decided to hear on Friday, the case between the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority(MMRDA) and Reliance Infrastructure Ltd for fare hike on Mumbai Metro.

Reliance Infrastructure Ltd is a part of Reliance Anil Ambani group.

Joint Project Director of MMRDA, Dilip Kawathkar, in a media statement said that the MMRDA had filed an arbitration petition before Justice RD Dhanuka for relief in the matter of fixation of Metro fares.

The MMRDA is the chief project proponent of the Mumbai Metro. In 2006, when the tender was awarded by the MMRDA to the Reliance group, the fares were fixed at Rs 9 for 3 km, Rs 11 for 3 to 8 km and Rs 13 for journey more 8 km. This fare structure was one of the main conditions on which the tender was awarded to the group.

But today the Reliance group wants to wants to charge fares between Rs 10 and Rs 40, citing increase in the cost of the project from Rs 2,356 crore to Rs 4,321 crore. The project also had to face inordinate delays in getting safety permission from the Railway Ministry.

Last week, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Prithviraj Chavan, had said that MMRDA has moved a petition in Bombay High Court requesting the court to restrain the Reliance group from implementing any arbitrary tariff hike.

comment COMMENT NOW