The Tamil Nadu government has been paying Rs 525 crore to the metro administration as part of the loss incurred for providing the metro services in Chennai for the past six years, according to a reply under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
The metro train service in Chennai has been operating since June 28, 2015 after the Central and the State governments jointly agreed to bear the cost of the project.
The Chennai Metro is the fourth-longest metro system in India after Delhi Metro, Hyderabad Metro and Namma Metro. The system commenced service seven years back after partially opening the first phase of the project.
As per the RTI report, out of Rs 812 crore annually spent for the metro, Rs 287 crore has been gained from passengers’ fares. Besides maintenance cost, around Rs 525 crore has been stated as the annual average loss amount for metro administration. The Metro administration has pointed out that the total loss is being provided by the Tamil Nadu government.
Similarly, the transport unions have questioned why the Tamil Nadu government does not accept the annual loss to the transport corporation, a service sector run on behalf of the state government.
Speaking to News18, Rajya Sabha member Shanmugam said, “The transport sector has a debt of about Rs 48,000 crore. Eventually, this was due to the inefficiency of the previous regime. Subsequently, the Tamil Nadu government also bears the free tickets for the state-run buses. However, the Tamil Nadu government is working on how to repay the loan in the interest of the workers.”
It has been reported that the Tamil Nadu government has provided a loss of about Rs 3,000 crore so far for Metro. Social activists raise concern over the loss and question that the Tamil Nadu government should release how many more years it has to spend on such losses.
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