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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Train fares to go up from January 21 -Sunderarajan P

Train fares to go up from January 21 -Sunderarajan P

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published Published on Jan 9, 2013   modified Modified on Jan 9, 2013
-The Hindu

In a rather unusual move, the Railway Minister, P.K. Bansal, on Wednesday announced an across the board hike in passenger fares less than two months before he would be presenting the Railway Budget for 2013-14. The hike comes into effect from January 21.

However, Mr. Bansal declared that there will be no further fare increase in the ensuing budget.

The new hike will range from two paise per km on basic fare in the case of second-class ordinary [suburban] passengers to 10 paise per km for AC chair car and AC first-class passengers.

Following the hike, for instance, a passenger travelling from New Delhi to Chennai by Tamil Nadu or GT Express would have to pay an extra Rs. 91 for a second-class ticket, Rs. 132 each for a sleeper ticket, Rs. 312 for an AC 3-tier ticket, Rs. 132 for an AC 2-tier ticket and Rs. 223 for an AC first-class ticket on basic fare.

When pointed out that the government had to roll back the proposals for an across the board hike made less than a year ago by the then Railway Minister, Dinesh Trivedi, Mr. Bansal expressed the hope that the people would understand the need for a hike.

“We will go around explaining the need for the increase to the people. I am sure they will appreciate the financial problems faced by the railways. We cannot let the railway system to collapse’’.

Interestingly, the hike proposed by Mr. Bansal in the economically sensitive classes, work out to be more than that proposed by Mr. Trivedi in his Railway Budget for 2012-13.

The new fares impose a sharper hikes in the second ordinary and sleeper classes that are heavily patronised by the economically weaker sections and remained untouched for a decade.

Mr. Bansal explained the urgency in effecting the fare hike on the ground that even as losses on passengers segment were relentlessly going up, revenue from freight was falling due to the general slow down in the economy. As of December, the coal movement, the bread and butter for Indian Railways, was down by 13 million tonnes.

“We could not have waited till the budget. A careful assessment of our financial situation showed that unless we hiked the fare immediately, we would have not been able to carry on with some of our essential safety and passenger amenity-related activities’’.

The fare hike, he said, is expected to yield Rs. 6,600 crores per year. During the current financial year [upto March 31], it would help the railway in mopping up an additional Rs. 1,200 crores.

Noting that passenger fares were not revised upwards over the last 10 years except for the increase in the fares of first, AC two-tier and AC first/executive classes in April last, he said losses in the passenger segment are expected to go up to Rs. 25,000 crores this financial year, a four-fold increase over the losses of Rs. 6,159 crores in 2004-05.

In contrast, input costs increased by 10.6 per cent every year during this period between 2004-05 and 2010-11. “Cross subsidy through business [is also] no more viable in view of fast evolving competition from other modes of transport’’, he added.

Mr. Bansal also announced that the railways will do away with the present practice of levying developmental charges on passenger tickets and to have all chargeable fares in multiples of five rupees.

To repeated queries, he declined to comment whether there would be any hike in freight charges too. “I am not saying anything [about freight charges] either way. We are not saying anything now,’’ he maintained.

The Hindu, 9 January, 2013, http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/train-fares-to-go-up-from-january-21/article4290576.ece


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