No order to roll back metro fare hike: BMRCL sources
Bengaluru (PTI): There have been no directions to roll back the revised metro rail fares, which are set to come into effect from Monday, sources in the BMRCL said on Sunday.
The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited had recently announced a fare hike ranging from Re 1 to Rs 5.
"We have not received any direction to roll back Metro fares. Therefore, whatever was announced earlier will hold," a BMRCL official told PTI.
BJP MP from Bengaluru South, Tejasvi Surya, on Saturday said that Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Manohar Lal Khattar had instructed officials to temporarily put the proposed Metro fare hike in the city on hold.
ALSO READ: ‘GT Devegowda has no party loyalty’: JD(S) State President HD Kumaraswamy criticizes colleague
Surya said the union minister also assured a personal review of anomalies in the Fare Fixation Committee (FFC) and added that a fresh committee could be considered if the state government requested it.
Earlier in the day, Surya interacted with Metro rail commuters and sought their views on the fare hike.
Later, speaking to reporters, he said commuters were upset over frequent fare revisions.
The BJP MP alleged that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy D K Shivakumar were "misleading the public by blaming the Centre for the fare hike."
Surya demanded the constitution of a Fare Fixation Committee (FFC).
Meanwhile, Union Minister for Steel and Heavy Industries H D Kumaraswamy blamed the state government for the Metro fare hike.
"After increasing Metro fares, the state government is passing the buck to the Centre, which is untrue," the JD(S) second-in-command told reporters in Mysuru.
He alleged that despite the Centre asking the state government not to implement the hike, it was insisting on going ahead with it.
Kumaraswamy further charged that the state government was unwilling to maintain a good relationship with the Centre for the implementation of Central schemes and policies.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Govt says 50-year-old trainer aircraft crashed due to inadequate fuel near Belagavi airport
New Delhi (PTI): An over 50-year-old Cessna 172 trainer aircraft of Redbird Flight Training Academy made a force landing in Karnataka on Sunday due to inadequate fuel and both pilots are safe, the civil aviation ministry said.
The aircraft VT-EUC, which was flying from Kalaburagi to Belagavi crashed landed in an open field near Vijayapura and the site is around 50 to 70 kilometres from the Belagavi airport.
The flight instructor and a trainee pilot were onboard the aircraft, which broke into three pieces after the crash landing, sources said.
ALSO READ: Jharkhand guv blesses 101 couples from poor families at mass marriage ceremony
In a statement on Sunday evening, the ministry said the force landing happened "due to suspected fuel starvation experienced by the aircraft" and that the plane was manufactured in 1975.
The aircraft's certificate of registration with Redbird was issued on May 23, 2023 and the certificate of airworthiness was issued on September 20, 2023.
According to the ministry, Airworthiness Review Certificate (ARC) was issued on August 1, 2025 and is valid till August 3, 2026.
ARC is issued after inspection of the particular aircraft to ensure that it is fit to fly.
The Pilot In Command (PIC) had 734 hours of flying experience.
Redbird Flight Training Academy has 48 planes in its fleet and its Flying Training Organisation (FTO) approval is valid till July 22, 2030.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) approved the academy as a FTO on July 23, 2020, as per the statement.
The ministry said "further investigation will be carried out by DGCA/AAIB (Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau)”.
Meanwhile, the pilots who were injured in the accident are Captain Kunal Malhotra, who is an Assistant Flight Instructor (AFI) at Redbird Aviation, and trainee pilot Goutham Sankar P R.
A senior official at the Redbird Flight Training Academy told PTI that after the crash, the pilots underwent medical checkups and both are safe.
Prima-facie it looks like that the Pilot-In-Command and the Trainee Pilot forgot to uplift enough fuel for the flight as a result of which there was the forced landing of the aircraft, the official said.
There was no official statement from the academy.
