Railways seeks views on Rail Tariff Authority

Railways has moved the proposal for setting up Rail Tariff Authority to different ministries including Finance seeking their views on the authority before submitting it to the Cabinet for approval.
A meeting was held by the Prime Minister to finalise infrastructure targets for 2013-14 which was attended by Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge and Chairman Railway Board Vinay Mittal besides Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia among others.
The RTA, a regulatory body which is the first of its kind for Railways, will suggest the level of tariff for both the freight and passenger fares from time to time taking into account the input cost (diesel and electricity) and volatile market conditions.

The RTA is perceived to be the first major step towards delinking Railways financial health from politics.
"The Railways is floating a note which is very important to set up a tariff regulatory authority. They have circulated the note, we have seen it. And we hope this will also come quickly in the cabinet to get approved," Ahluwalia said after the meeting.
According to sources, RTA will be a five-member body headed by its chairman. While a retired Railway Board Member is being tipped to head the regulatory body, four other members from outside of Railways are being shortlisted.

The RTA, mooted by former Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress MP Dinesh Trivedi in his Rail Budget 2012-13, was pursued by his successors Pawan Kumar Bansal and C P Joshi.

It was decided at the meeting that the proposal for creating RTA will be accelerated and brought to Cabinet soon.
The flagship projects of railways such as the two Loco Manufacturing Projects, Elevated Rail Corridor, the Dedicated Freight Corridor and station redevelopment will be closely monitored for award in the next six months.
An Inter-Ministerial Group of Railways, Finance and Planning will be formed with the task of coming up with a creative financing-cum-implementation mechanism in two months for clearing the large backlog of sanctioned projects of over Rs 200,000 crores in a prioritised and time-bound manner.