Rly. fares hiked to set up safety fund

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, AUG. 29. The Railways today announced a special ``safety'' levy on all passenger tickets with effect from October 1 to facilitate faster modernisation of its over-aged assets such as bridges, tracks, signalling equipment and rolling stock.

The announcement was made in the Lok Sabha through a suo motu statement by the Railway Minister, Mr. Nitish Kumar.

For the first time in several years, the hike cuts across all categories of trains and classes including unreserved second class and suburban.

The increase will be minimal for passengers travelling by second class irrespective of the distance travelled - Re. 1 for second class (ordinary) and Rs. 2 for second class (mail/express). Suburban travellers will pay an additional Rs. 10 and Rs. 20 for first class and second class, respectively.

For all the other classes, the levy has been divided into two slabs - up to 500 km and beyond 500 km. In the popular sleeper class, the levy would be Rs. 10 for distances up to 500 km and double that amount (Rs. 20) for distances beyond 500 km. For AC Chair Car and the fast-disappearing First Class, the levy has been fixed at Rs. 20 for distances up to 500 km and Rs. 40 for distances beyond 500 km.

The hike will be Rs. 40 and Rs. 80, respectively, for AC-II tier and Rs. 50 and Rs. 100 for AC-I.

The levy on all passenger tickets, estimated to garner Rs. 5,000 crores over a period of six years, will be credited to a Special Railway Safety Fund whose total corpus will be Rs. 17,000 crores.

The Union Finance Ministry will make an extraordinary allocation of Rs. 12,000 crores to the Fund over the same period.

In the current financial year the Ministry of Finance has agreed to provide Rs. 1,000 crores towards this fund. The balance would be provided over the next five years.

``With the creation of this Fund, the Railways expects to wipe out the arrears of replacement of assets in a time-bound manner and thereby improve the safety of the travelling public,'' Mr. Kumar said.

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