Namma Metro in a roll in New Year with Rs 1cr earnings on three days

BENGALURU: The New Year has begun on a cheerful note for Namma Metro with it exceeding an operational revenue of Rs 1 crore for three consecutive days. Though it has crossed the figure on and off since the entire Phase-I became operational, it is the first time ever since Metro commenced operations in October 2011 that it has achieved this healthy consistency in revenue collection.  

According to a senior Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) official, Metro started making operational profits since September 2017. “Our profit averaged over Rs 8 crore a month from then due to the opening up of the full Phase-I on June 17 last year. The progress has been steady and our annual profit for the financial year 2018-2019 will definitely cross Rs 100 crore,” he said.

Operational expenses refer to the entire apparatus involved in running of trains: Revenue from trips undertaken with tokens or Smartcards, salaries of BMRCL and outsourced staff, procurement of tokens, electricity, air-conditioning and all other expenses related to operation of trains.

The average daily ridership figure on both Green and Purple Lines ranged between 3.5 lakh and 3.7 lakh commuters. Specifying the details, the official said the operational revenue on January 1 was Rs 1,08,18,038 (3,66198 passengers), January 2 was Rs 1,16,18,088 (3,62,464 passengers) and January 3 was 1,04,61,614 (3,55,734 passengers).

BMRCL Managing Director Mahendra Jain said, “Metro has begun 2018 on a buoyant note by consistently clocking revenues of a crore rupees a day. This patronage reaffirms our faith in the robustness of the alternative that Metro has provided in the sphere of urban mobility.”

It is reliably learnt that BMRCL had crossed Rs 1 crore quite a few times since it began operations. Apart from crossing it for the first time on June 18 lat year, the figure is regularly breached on the first working day of every month.

BMRCL’s operational revenues, which began at around Rs 85 lakh per day in July, the first month following full Phase-I operations, has steadily increased every month and crossed Rs 90 lakh per day in December last year. The monthly operational expenses averages Rs 21 crore now and the revenue averages Rs 29 crore, an official said.

Train services disruption

A S Shankar, Executive Director, Operations and Management, BMRCL, was confident that the disruption of train services due to the power failure on Tuesday would not be repeated. “There was an electricity supply overload which affected the circuit. Since the route on Purple Line stretches over 18 km, there is a possibility of such events happening once in a while,” he said. “However, this time, it happened multiple times on the same day and so resulted in power disruption, Shankar added. Mahendra Jain said, “Steps have been taken to address the likely causes of the incident in order to avoid recurrence.”