Railway Board stonewalls queries on fare hikes

The Railway Board on Tuesday maintained that average increase in fare for each class was difficult to calculate offhand as distance was the criterion for the rationalisation of tariffs.

"The fare was kinky in some slabs and what we have done is to smoothen out by rationalising the tariffs, so class-wise the percentage increase will be different" R N Malhotra, chairman, Railway Board, told reporters in New Delhi.

The proposed total average earning from the rationalisation of passenger tariffs is expected to give Railways Rs 9.10 billion. Last year's earnings from passenger fare was Rs 114 billion.

"This proportion of proposed revenue earning next fiscal compared to previous year's will work out to 7.9 per cent, although the average increase in different classes will vary according to the distance," Malhotra said.

For shorter distances "we have deliberately kept the increase low," he claimed. But the minimum fare has been raised by Re 1 to Rs 4, which worked out to 33 per cent.

The Board members parried repeated queries by reporters who wanted to know the average fare increase in different classes. On rightsizing, Malhotra said the railways would continue with the set target of two per cent in the current Five Year Plan.

"For every three per cent of retirement we will continue to recruit only one per cent personnel," he said.

Malhotra said the main objective of this year's Rail Budget was to chart out a "route-map" to improve the financial health of the Railways, which has deteriorated in the last few years.

It also has evolved strategy to fund the new railway projects through public and private partnership, state governments and multilateral agencies.

PTI

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