The reduction of 10 % for the metro smart card users is affecting the travel budget of the daily commuters.
The discount rate has been cut to 5% in order to meet the operational and maintenance cost, says the BMRCL Chief Public Relation Officer. The Metro records the highest percentage of the population and this plan is shifting the price levels of the smart cards and affecting the travel budget, says a commuter.
Mr Pratik Diwan ,daily metro commuter says,” “The discount cut will definitely affect my travel budget that I keep every month. Metro was made available for us so that it becomes convenient and we stay away from traffic congestion, but now if such is the case then the government should come up metro passes just like the bus passes are available.”
Considering the ridership, changes will be seen in the long run with respect to ridership. Due to the ban in outdoor advertisements, the metro corporation is not able to gain revenue out of it , for which it has shifted the price levels, says the Project Associate of Transport department.
Mr BLYashwanth Chavan, BMRCL Chief Public Relation Officer says, We have cash losses for the past two years that is borne by the State Government , estimating nearly Rs 60 crore, this year. This is because of the increase in energy consumption and man-power cost. Instead of increasing the cost at the best fares, we are taking a small portion that has been given as an incentive for the people to use smart cards. This implementation is done to maintain the techno- economic balance with respect to the profit and losses incurred. A tweet was put out to push the public to other alternative means of transport.
Mr Alok Mukherjee, Traffic Consultant says, Metro commuters do tend to be fairly sensitive to price changes.In this case, it’s a nominal price high. For majority of commuters , the convenience of being able to take metro will still over-right some of these price changes , especially as the metro network expands. However if they do continue to hike fair the reduced discounts, they will then see a reasonable substantial drop in ridership.”
The metro came as a convenient means of travel and the reduction in discount is encouraging people to look at the alternative means of transport.
