The Indian Railways had increased the fares for all trains this week. The hike in fare occurs between 5 to 40 paise per kilometer, according to reports.
The revised fares will be applied to all categories of bookings in the railway, from air-conditioned to unreserved and suburban monthly-quarterly season ticket fares.
Prime Minter’s office gave its nod toRrailways, last month on the implementation of the fare hike.
Amidst the economic slowdown, the Indian railways have been battling with finances. Some reports from the Times of India also suggested that the freight revenue of railways declined to Rs 19,412 crore between April and October, this year.
Railways have also witnessed a loss of traffic to airlines that have managed to keep fares low. The Indian Railways earned Rs 99, 223 crores against the projection of nearly Rs 1.18 lakh crore during this period.
Whereas, the total expenditure shot up by Rs 4,099 crore during this period to Rs 1.01 lakh crore, against a target of Rs 97,265 crore.
Railways also this year recorded an operating ratio of 98.44 percent in 2017-18 which is the worst in the previous 10 years, according to a report by Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).
In railways, 95 percent of the profit from freight traffic was utilised to compensate for the loss of the operation of passenger and other coaching services. The Railways has also been unable to meet its operational cost of passenger services and other coaching services.
Railways have not increased fares for many years. It is also suggested by a parliamentary committee that the Railways have to assess its fares in a limited time period. And even the committee suggested that the Rail fares need to be more conditional in nature. It is also to be noted that the Railway budget had no increment this year.
