'Rail fare hike needed for maintenance'

Government had to hike railway fares as maintenance of public services comes at a cost, Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari said on Thursday.

"The maintenance of standards in public services comes at a cost.

"That cost has to be defrayed in a Public Private

partnership," Tewari tweeted on social networking site twitter.

On Wednesday, Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal announced an across-the-board hike in fares of all classes from midnight of January 21 to net an additional Rs 6,600 crore (Rs 66 billion) a year.

The announcement, which was a made only about a month ahead of the Railway budget, is the first such increase in Railway fares in nearly a decade.