Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi on Wednesday indicated at introduction of dynamic pricing policy in the passenger segment which will link these rates to market dyanamics. Currently, only the freight segment of the railways is governed by the dynamic pricing principle which takes into consideration demand and supply.
Trivedi said, “The exact modality of the passenger fare hike is just under consideration with no concrete plan yet worked out. The common man will be kept in mind if any such tinkering takes place in the passenger segment.”
He also added connecting border regions of India with railways is on the radar. The ministry has asked central government to add this in the list of national projects as culmination of this project is in the strategic interest of the railways.
“Developing the infrastructure within the nation is of prime importance as of now and trans-Asian projects are ahead of this.”
“India’s 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-13 to 2016-17) envisages investment of $1 trillion in infrastructure as the country aims at maintaining a high economic growth and out of this 50 per cent is expected to come through private route,” said the minister.
The formation of Station Authority of India on the lines of Airport Authority of India is also expected to take place next month, Trivedi said.
Apart from this, real time information system (RTIS) based on Simran project will be open to public in a few trains like Rajdhani and Shatabdi. RTIS will give the real time information about the train locations and if the train is running on time. This information will be available on website “http://www.simran.in”.
Public may also get the train running information through sms by sending a text message to mobile number 09415139139. The Railways ministry has decided to implement RTIS to track all trains, passenger as well as freight trains.
For this, work has been approved in the 2011-12 Railway Budget at a cost of Rs 110 crore. The project is likely to be completed by December 2012.
