Avoiding temptation to repeat Lalu’s move, the Union Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge strongly defended his decision not to cut passenger fares by terming this as a realistic move.
“I want to be realistic. I want Railways to be sustainable. I want Railways to survive,” Kharge told reporters after presenting the Interim Railway Budget in both the houses of Parliament on Wednesday. This budget is meant to seek approval for expenditure of the next four months as the next General Election is due in April-May and the final budget will be presented by the new Government most likely in July.
Not lowering passenger fares is also being read as a strong indication that populist measures are unlikely to be included in the Interim General Budget. This will be presented on February 17 and there are expectations that the Government may raise expenditure on welfare measures.
Passenger fare is one of the most important tools of populism as every day 2.30 crore people travel by train every day. This translates into 800 crore passengers every year. To woo this number, in the last Interim railway Budget in 2009, the then Railway Minister Lalu Prasad had reduced the fare for all classes.
Asked about not succumbing to such measures especially in the election year, Khrage replied, “I do not want to compete with anyone on populist measures.” He also justified the move about setting up a Railway Tariff Authority by saying that any third party involvement in deciding tariff will give opportunity to more and more stakeholders to have a say in deciding fares.
Dynamic fares on premium trains
The Railway Minister mentioned that the 17 premium trains will be called Jai Hind Express. Such trains will have fares based on market dynamism such as higher demand during festive season. Fares will also be slightly higher than normal trains. Tickets for these trains will be sold only through the web to eliminate touts. “We have only 17 premium trains while there are 56 normal trains in the Budget. We want to earn money to run trains for the common man,” he said.
Terming his interim budget as growth-oriented, Kharge said that during the last 10 years of UPA, the effort has been to provide more and more funds for north east and Jammu and Kashmir besides for strategic, interior and border areas. In fact, during last 10 years, Rs 35,000 crore has been provided for the railway project in North East.