Indian Railways has said it is proposing an increase in fares by 8-12%, subject to approval from the cabinet.
The last time Indian Railways hiked fares was in 2003 and since then it has incurred a loss of up to Rs 200 billion.
The Railway board chairman Vinay Mittal has already sent the proposal to the railway minister Dinesh Trivedi.
A spokesperson for Indian Railways said:
“Due to ‘populism’, there has been no increase in passengers fares and freight rate hikes for the last eight to nine years.
“As there has been huge increase in oil prices in the international market, we have no other option but to ask for a fare increase.”
Recently, the Western Union of Workers said that an increase in ticket prices would be a good thing as the loss is ‘impacting the quality of service and performance of the railways’.
In the recent budget, passenger earnings for 2011-12 was expected to be around Rs 30,456 crore compared to last year’s Rs 26,126.
The latest figures of Indian Railways’ earnings during the first four months of the year were Rs 33,134 crore.
Freight earnings in the current year were estimated at Rs 68,620 crore, an increase of Rs 5,000 crore for the same period last year.
Indian Railways currently run 10,500 trains and ferry nearly 22 million passengers every day and is planning to invest on buying new locomotives and other infrastructure development.
