Nitish sops for upper-class travellers

With sight firmly set on year-end elections in five States, Nitish Kumar managed to present a Budget without any hike in passenger fares. On...

With sight firmly set on year-end elections in five States, Nitish Kumar managed to present a Budget without any hike in passenger fares.

On the contrary, fares of popular express trains including Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Jan Shatabdi were ‘rationalised,’ bringing them down by five to 30 per cent. He also announced introduction of reduced fares during non-peak season. A 10 per cent discount would be offered in II AC and I AC classes of Rajdhani Express trains from July 15 to September 15, this year.

And the government was more than happy with the Budget, if the pat Nitish Kumar received from by Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani was any indication. Advani walked up to Kumar, soon after he finished reading out his speech, patted him on the back and shook his hand. Kumar received the congratulations with folded hands.

However, later, by way of explanation, he said that fares could not have been increased since the passenger traffic had gone down by three per cent. Analysis had shown that it was because of increased fares last year and also due to the safety cess which had been imposed. But Chairman Railway Board IIMS Rana added another reason. According to him, even the Godhra accident had affected passenger traffic adversely. Deteriorating safety record of railways had nothing to do with it.

About rationalising fares of Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Jan Shatabdi trains, the minister said that the occupancy of these trains was going down, and it had become necessary to attract passengers. The fare structure of Rajdhani and Shatabdi Express trains were rationalised, uniformly fixed at 15 per cent higher than fares of corresponding class of Superfast or Express trains.

To bring back people

• Fares of Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Jan Shatabdi to be down by 5 to 30%

• A 10% discount in II AC and I AC classes of Rajdhani Express trains from July 15 to September 15

The Jan Shatabdis, which were introduced last year, failed to attract passengers as expected. Their fares were earlier fixed at 10 per cent higher than other Superfast and Express trains. Additional charges for catering were included in the fare. Now, to increase the popularity of the trains, the minister announced to reduce basic fare to five per cent of fares of corresponding Superfast and Express trains, and catering services were made optional, not to be included in the fare.