White Paper on Kerala finances moots regulatory commission for Kochi metro user charges

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Kochi Metro service at Vyttila. (file) | Photo Credit: H. VIBHU

The White Paper on State finances tabled in the Kerala Assembly by Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan on Thursday explores the possibility of appointing a regulatory commission to fix user charges for metro services, similar to the model followed in the electricity sector.

The document notes that Kochi Metro registers a monthly loss of ₹35 crore. Notwithstanding these losses, the White Paper proposes metro projects in two more cities — Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode. Going by the White Paper, Kochi Metro is running on an annual loss of ₹420 crore. KMRL, however, hasn’t contested the ₹35-crore loss mentioned in the White Paper contrary to what a section of the media reported.

From its inception, authorities associated with Kochi Metro have pointed out that metros worldwide are rarely profitable. In fact, Kochi Metro is among the four large metros in the country to post operational profits.

It began registering operational profit in the 2022–23 fiscal, posting ₹5.35 crore. This rose more than fourfold to ₹22.94 crore in 2023–24, and further to ₹33.34 crore in 2024–25, marking three successive years of operational profit.

In 2024–25, Kochi Metro recorded operational revenue of ₹182.37 crore against operational expenses of ₹149.03 crore. This included ticket revenue of ₹111.88 crore, non-ticketing revenue of ₹55.41 crore, consultancy revenue of ₹1.56 crore, and other income of ₹13.52 crore.

During its first year of operations in 2017–18, Kochi Metro registered an operational loss of ₹24.19 crore, which dropped to ₹5.70 crore the following year. However, the loss rose to ₹13.92 crore in 2019–20 and further to ₹56.56 crore in 2020–21, coinciding with the pandemic.

Work on the second phase of Kochi Metro, extending the line to Infopark and SmartCity via Kakkanad, is progressing and is expected to be completed by next year.