Railway platform ticket to cost Rs 10 from Apr 1, freight rates to rise

Freight rates for grains, pulses and urea will increase by 10%

From Wednesday, a platform ticket will cost Rs 10, double than at present, and rail freight rates of various commodities, including pulses and urea, will go up by up to 10%.

Also, one can book a train ticket 120 days ahead of travel date, instead of 60 days as at present.

Freight rates for grains, pulses and urea would increase by 10%, while the rate for coal would be raised by 6.3%, as per the Railway Budget 2015-15 proposals which will come into effect from April one.

Rate for cement will increase by 2.7% while that of scrap and pig iron will rise by 3.1%, according to the proposals.

As proposed in the budget, freight hike of 0.8% will be effected on iron ore and steel while that for bitumen and coal tar, the hike will be of 3.5%.

Due to these hikes, freight earnings are estimated to be Rs 1,21,423 crore in the next fiscal as against its estimated freight earnings in 2014-15 of Rs 106,927 crore.

Railways has an ambitious target of carrying 1186 million tons (MT) of goods in the 2015-16 fiscal as against 1105 MT in the current fiscal.