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`Passenger rail fare will not be increased'

Staff Reporter

KANCHEEPURAM: The Union Minister of State for Railways, R. Velu, has said that passenger rail fare would not be raised in the forthcoming railway budget.

Talking to reporters at Melmaruvathur on Tuesday, the Union Minister said passenger train fares would remain unchanged and the loss would be compensated by adopting new schemes to improve revenue from freight movement.

Already the `own your wagon' scheme had elicited a favourable response, he said and added that Indian Railways was contemplating to augment freight carrier services in the following sections — Kolkata-Chennai; Chennai-Mumbai; Mumbai-Kolkata and Goa-Chennai — to extract maximum revenue from these corridors.

When asked whether additional superfast or luxury services — such as the one introduced recently between Chennai and Tirupati — would be introduced in the next financial year, Mr. Velu said at present the Union Government was concerned to provide rail link to the rural areas and hill stations which have not been brought under the Indian Railways network.

Earlier, commissioning the computerized unreserved ticketing system at Melmaruvathur railway station, the Union Minister pointed out that only 8 per cent of total passengers opt for advance reservation. Around 1.6 crore passengers, including 60 lakh commuters in Mumbai, use the services operated by the Indian Railways every day. In order to avoid a last minute rush at ticket counters, UTS was introduced last year in 800 railway stations in the country, he added.

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