Train fares to be costlier from Tuesday
Rail fares in all classes will be costlier from tomorrow.Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal had announced about 21 per cent hike in passenger fares with an aim to mop up additional revenue of Rs 6600 crore in a year.
According to him, the hike will rake in an additional Rs 1200 crore between January 22 and March 31.
He had also said that there will be no further hike in the Rail Budget 2013-14.
Fares of ordinary second class (suburban) trains will go up by 2 paise per km while for non-suburban travel it will be 3 paise.
Travel by second class mail and express trains will be costlier by 4 paise per km, while it will be 6 paise more in sleeper class.
Travellers by AC chair car and AC three tier will have to shell out 10 paise more per km, first class by 3 paise, AC two tier by 6 paise and AC first class by 10 paise.
The fares for first class, AC two tier and AC first/ executive class were already raised by 10 paise per km, 15 and 30 paise respectively in the fiscal's budget.
Breaking away from the populism of his predecessors, including Lalu Prasad and Mamata Banerjee, Bansal, who was made the Railway Minister last October, has said that the decision to hike the fares was "imperative" as lack of revision in the last 10 years has had a "telling effect" on the railway finances.
Dinesh Trivedi, who succeeded his party chief Banerjee, made a bold decision to hike fares in the Budget in February, 2012 to mop up an additional Rs 4000 crore but he was made to resign by his party Trinamool Congress which was opposed to it.
