No proposal to raise rail fares: Minister

The government Saturday said there was no proposal to increase fares in the upcoming railway budget.

According to Minister of State (MoS) for Railways Manoj Sinha, there was no proposal at present to increase rail fares.

"There is no proposal as of now to hike rail fares," the minister told reporters on the sidelines of an event to flag-off a new train service.

Sinha did not divulge any further details saying that the railway budget will be discussed in parliament.

"The rail budget will be discussed in parliament. It is not right to discuss it in advance," he said.

Sinha said that railways are only able to recover 50 percent of passenger cost and that there is already a huge element of subsidy provided to passengers in the fares.

"There is a huge demand-supply gap and finance is a major constraint," Sinha said adding that the point is how to raise resources to modernise the railways.

Earlier, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu had rejected the idea of reduction in passenger fares consequent to lowering of diesel prices.

Parliament will commence the budget session on Feb 23. The railway budget will be presented on Feb 26, 2015. This will be followed by the economic survey on Feb 27

and the union budget on Feb 28.