Mukul Roy, 58, took charge as Union railway minister on Tuesday, even as at least 15 persons died in a rail collision in Uttar Pradesh.
Roy is expected to partially roll back the rise in passenger fares proposed by his predecessor, Dinesh Trivedi. The latter’s act led to his removal, on the demand of Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee. She proposed Roy as a replacement.
Busy in Parliament with a discussion on the Railway Budget, he did not come to the ministry headquarters in the adjoining building. He was sworn in as a cabinet minister earlier in the day, an elevation; he was minister of state for shipping till now.
The fare-rise roll-back announcement is likely to be part of the reply to the debate, slated for tomorrow in the Lok Sabha.
As for the rail collision, the Mathura-Kasganj Express rammed into a jeep at an unmanned railway crossing at Hathras in the morning, near Maidu railway station. Railway sources said the jeep tried to cross the track as the train approached.
The Railway Budget had announced a fare rise of two paise per km for suburban and ordinary second class travel. Mail and express second-class fare was proposed to be raised by three paise per km; for sleeper class by five paise per km; for A/C chair car and A/C 3-tier and first class by 10 paise per km; for A/C 2-tier by 15 paise per km and for A/C I by 30 paise per km.
The railways said they expected to earn Rs 36,073 crore from passenger earnings, about 25 per cent above the 2011-12 passenger earnings of Rs 28,800 crore.
The Budget proposals said they hoped to garner Rs 6,500 crore from the fare rise.
