Kolkata Metro fares to go up from Nov 7

The Kolkata Metro railway fares will go up between 25 percent and over 100 percent for various distances from Nov 7, the railway board announced Wednesday.

The total railway route has been divided into six zones, based on distance, in computing the raised fares. So long, there were five zones.

The fresh zone was for distances between 25 and 30 km. So long, any distance above 20 km was considered one single zone.

The minimum fare, valid up to five km, would be Rs.5. It will be 25 percent more than the existing fare of Rs.4 that commuters have to shell out now.

The maximum fare, valid for distances between 25 km and 30 km, would be Rs.25. So long, commuters had to pay a maximum fare of Rs.12 for travelling any distance over 20 km.

Between five to 10 km, the fares have been raised from Rs.6 to Rs.10.

Those travelling between 11 and 15 km would have to pay Rs.15 as against the Rs.8 they shell out now.

The fare would remain Rs.15 for those travelling between between 15 and 20 km.

Between 21 and 25 km, the fare would be raised to Rs.20.

The Railway Board had Oct 15 announced a sharp increase in fares, with the rates rising by up to two-and-a-half times on certain stretches. Hours after the announcement, however, minister of state for railways Adhir Chowdhury stalled the move, saying there was a need for review of the increased tariff.

Kolkata Metro, the country's first metro rail system stretching across 25.135 km on the city's busy north-south axis from Dumdum to Kavi Subhash, opened commercial services in 1984. It ferries around 6.5 lakh commuters on weekdays and nearly four lakh passengers on weekends.