It is like giving away with one hand and taking it back by the other. When the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) announced a hike per unit power tariff by five paise for the city's consumers, the Delhi Government came up with a plan to offset the marginal hike by subsidizing it. It was obviously good news for the citizens of Delhi that they would not have to pay more for their domestic consumption of electricity.

But the DERC has increased the power tariff for the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation-DMRC-as well. The proposed increase per unit power consumption for DMRC is by 70 paise to 3 rupees and will come into effect from March 1. "Apart from the actual tariff of Rs 3 per unit, we have to pay some additional charges to the distcoms. The total amount would come to Rs 3.30 per unit," said DMRC spokesman Anuj Dayal.

According to the officials of the private power distribution companies, the cost of power supply to the DMRC for running its trains could increase by up to 20 crore rupees every year. The DMRC presently pays Rs.45 crore per year to buy power from the power distribution companies. Apart from the electricity consumed by the Metro trains, the offices and stations of the DMRC also consume electricity, for which it has to pay an additional cost of 50-60 crore rupees per annum.

" This is expected to increase to Rs 180 crore once the entire stretch of 120 km as part of Phase-II of the Metro link becomes operational by 2010. This additional cost would be quite substantial for us," said Dayal.

The increase in power rates would obviously result in hike in the overall operational costs of the Metro. All this increase will ultimately fall upon the commuters through the increase in passenger fares.

The present fare varies from Rs.6 to Rs.22 depending upon the distance. Last fare increase was affected in 2005.Whatever the argument, the truth is that from now onwards the general Metro commuters and the office goers will have to shell out increased fares for traveling by Metro.