Former Railway Board Chairman J P Batra today supported the decision to increase rail passenger fares and freight rates, saying it was "very much required for railway's financial health".
He said the increase in passenger and freight together in the remaining period of the year will give the railways approximately Rs 11,000 crore while the annual loss is roughly about Rs 29,000 crore on passenger traffic alone.
"Therefore, increase was very much required for railways financial health because railway needs money for improving safety, for modernisation as wells for improving passenger amenities," Batra said.
"I personally feel it was a step long overdue which has been taken now," he said.
The ex-rail board chief, however, said he feels government may not announce any more fare increase in the budget to be presented next month.
The cash-strapped railways today effected a steep across-the-board hike of 14.2 per cent in passenger fares in all classes and a 6.5 per cent increase in freight rates to garner Rs 8000 crore a year.
Opposition parties have questioned the government's decision terming it as "criminal" to burden the people with such an increase and questioned why parliament was not taken into confidence before taking the step.
