Indian Railways has hiked passenger fares by up to 20% across categories with effect from January 21. For AC I and II, this is the second fare hike this year. Second class fares have been hiked for the first time in ten years. Rail Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal today said that the hike is likely to earn Indian Railways an incremental revenue of Rs 6,600 crore. The minister further said that there will be no fresh hike in the Rail Budget.
Last year, Trinamool Congress leader Dinesh Trivedi had to quit after he hiked fares in March 2012.
In April 2012, AC I and AC II class fares were increased by 20%. Mukul Roy, who replaced Dinesh Trivedi, announced a rollback later.
The last across-the-board hike had happened at the start of the millennium, when Nitish Kumar held the charge. Railway has set up a tariff regulatory authority to restructure the passenger fares as well as freight charges.
New passenger fares:
* 2nd class ordinary suburban- 2 paise per km
* 2 class ordinary non suburban- 3 paise per km
* 2nd class mail express train- 4 paise per km
* Sleeper class- 10 paise per km
* AC chair car- 10 paise per km
* AC 2 tier- 15 paise hiked earlier and additional 6 paise at present
