The Ministry of Railways (MoR) has hiked passenger fares by up to 20% across categories with effect from midnight of January 21, 2013. For AC I and II, this is the second fare hike this year, however for Second class fares have been hiked for the first time in 10 years. Rail Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal today said that the hike is likely to earn Indian Railways an incremental revenue of Rs 6,600 crore. The minister further said that there will be no fresh hike in the Rail Budget of 2013.
New passenger fares with effect from January 21:
- 2nd class ordinary suburban- 2 paise per km
- 2 class ordinary non suburban- 3 paise per km
- 2nd class mail express train- 4 paise per km
- Sleeper class- 6 paise per km
- AC chair car- 10 paise per km
- AC 2 tier- 15 paise hiked earlier and additional 6 paise at present
- AC 3 tier - 10 paise
- AC first class - 10 paise earlier + 3 paise
- AC first class executive - 30 paise per km increased earlier + 10 paise per km
The last across-the-board hike had happened at the start of the millennium, when Nitish Kumar held the charge. Recently, Indian Railways has set up a tariff regulatory authority to restructure the passenger fares as well as freight charges. The govt has reportedly hiked Rail fares to generate revenue to fund railways' two ambitious projects - high speed bullet trains and dedicated freight corridor.
Comments
Post a Comment