KOLKATA: The fare chart of East-West Metro, which is ready to roll out its first phase of operations shortly, has carefully been stacked in such a way that it exerts minimum burden on the exchequer, while coming across as commuter friendly.When compared to the Delhi Metro rates, which a Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) survey showed to be the second-most expensive across the world last year, the East-West fare turns out to be slightly costlier, at least in some stages. The base fares of both are precisely the same, where one has to pay Rs 5 for 2km. But the Delhi Metro tariff for 5km-12km slab is Rs 20, while in East-West, the moment one crosses 10km, he/she will hit the Rs 30-mark. In fact, Rs 30 has so far been fixed as the maximum fare on East-West, which will be applicable to travel up to 16.5km, the maximum distance between the ends stations of Howrah Maidan and Salt Lake’s Sector V. In Delhi, a commuter can travel 21km for Rs 30, which is 4.5km more than that on East-West.An official reasoned: “East-West happens to be India’s first under-river line, which has been implemented at a cost of Rs 8,575 crore. It’s if international standards, with trains running at a gap of 90 seconds.” He pointed out that while Delhi Metro charges Rs 15 for 2-5km, it’s Rs 10 for East-West. But with varying fare slabs in the various Metro systems, the Delhi rate is the highest for the 5km slab, for which a ticket costs Rs 15. The existing Kolkata Metro is the cheapest at Rs 5, while travelling on East-West for 5km will cost Rs 10.With a total network length of 218km across colour-coded lines, the Delhi Metro is the largest in India and the maximum price one pays for a singlejourney ticket on the Blue Line, which is the longest at 50.56km, is Rs 50. That makes the per-km cost less than Re 1 (.98 paise), while that on East-West will be Rs 1.81. When East-West runs its full length, which is 16.5km, one has to pay almost Rs 2 a kilometre for an end-to-end journey. Compared to the East-West corridor, even the city’s 30km north-south line, which is the oldest and the second-busiest Metro in the country, turns out to be cheaper, with average fare per km being Rs 1.2.Two of India’s younger Metros-—Kochi and Lucknow —run on 13.4km and 8.5km elevated sections, costing Rs 2.98/km and Rs 2.62/km on one journey. For Namma Metro (Bengaluru), the cost works out to be Rs 2.47/km. As for India’s smallest line, the 9.63km Jaipur Metro, a oneway journey costs Rs 2.07/km. Chennai Metro’s cost comes to Rs 1.79/km on an average on the Green Line. And finally, the topper: 11.4km Mumbai Metro. It’s average fare per km costs Rs 3.5 on an average.

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