Hyderabad: Officials at L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad) Ltd (L&TMRHL) are likely to meet with Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy in order to seek approval for hiking on subway fares. The meeting was reportedly scheduled for Thursday and was cancelled as the government did not review the proposal.
The company has pushed for a revision of fares starting May 10, proposing to raise the minimum fare from Rs 10 to Rs 15 and the maximum fare from Rs 60 to Rs 75. L&T chairman SN Subrahmanyan personally sought the appointment of the chief minister to demand a revised fare, according to official sources. The meeting is now expected to take place within the next two to three days.
L&TMRHL operates the Hyderabad metropolitan area under a public-private partnership (PPP) model and submitted a report to the state government in April last week highlighting its financial difficulties. The company reported a loss of Rs 625 crore in 2024-25 and said cumulative losses since the launch of the metro service in November 2017 reached Rs 65,982.1 crore.
The report said that due to prolonged lockdowns and a sharp drop in passenger volumes, Rs 48,285.5 million was caused by the joint pandemic in 2020 and 2021. While asset monetization efforts over the past two years have helped reduce financial pressure, high-interest loans to fund subway construction continue to be significant pressure on the project’s balance sheet, it told the government.
The report noted that revenue from ticketing and advertising hit Rs 14,000 crore, not enough to offset the debt burden. It also noted that Bangalore Metro recently implemented a 50% fare rate hike, which is also operating under the PPP model. If approved, the rate increase in the fare could generate additional revenue of Rs 150 crore for L&T each year.
