Reacting to the Railway ministry’s decision to hike passenger fares across the board, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said, it will cause great inconvenience to the common people.
He also expressed surprise over the decision just one month ahead of the presentation of the Railways budget in the parliament. “It is difficult to understand”, he added.
The Railways have hiked passenger fares across categories with effect from January 21. The fare for sleeper class goes up by two paise per kilometer (km) in suburban trains, three paise per km in non-suburban trains, four paise per km in second class mail/express trains, six paise per km in sleeper class, 10 paise per km for air-conditioned (AC) chair car, and three, six and 10 paise per km in first class, AC- II and AC- first class respectively. Rail minister Pawan Bansal said that the hike is likely to earn Indian railways incremental revenue of Rs 6,600 crore.
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. Last year, Trinamool Congress leader Dinesh Trivedi had to quit after he hiked fares in March 2012.