Is rail fare hike justified?
Is rail fare hike justified?
With few days left to the rail budget, PM Narendra Modi is focusing on the modernization of railways. The rail companies are very optimistic about the budget but the people are not in a cheerful mood as the NDA government went for a passenger fare hike by 14.2%. it also increased the freight charges by 6.5%. There is discontentment spreading among the local masses that expected aache din and have to see the rise in passenger hikes. Is the rail fare hike before budget justified?
Yes
• Passengers complaint of the facilities and they can get the best facilities only when government will have the funds.
• The hike in fare rates will create a large corpus of Rs 8,000 crore per year that can used to revive the suffering railways sectors.
• The operational costs have increased and the railways are losing more than 30, 000 crore every year, and therefore it is must to hike the fares.
• Government has to take the strong measures and avoid the populist measures if it really wants to bring the good days.
• There are as much as Rs 5 lakh crore worth railway projects pending, and the reason is insufficient funds.
No
• Elections in Delhi are near, and rail fare hike issue can become a great issue for the new government.
• The monsoon is not showing any signs of improvement, and in such a condition, hiking of rail fares will add to inflation.
• The common man didn’t expect the start of good days with the hike in fares, and certainly without any strong measures on other part, government has hit them directly.
• Government could have used the other means to mobilize funds, and have opted for other important reforms than the rail fare hikes.
• Railways are suffering highly due to the negligence and inefficiency coming around 40%. First it should be improved as it is a waste of taxpayer’s money.
• Private transport enjoys a lot more subsidies then why common men are made to suffer.
Conclusion
It doesn’t make any sense when Narendra Modi says that railways can match the facilities with airports. Why railways should be modernized like the airports when the two means of communication have entirely different set of passengers. Perhaps Mr. Modi has forgotten that railways are for common man who cannot take the fare hikes. There is no doubt that hike is a must but before that there was need to take some strong steps to improve the current system without passing the burden to common men. In any case, the passenger fare hike alone is not going to revive the railway system.
Discussion
- RE: Is rail fare hike justified? -Vinayak N Adkar (07/09/14)
- I think railway hike is not justified. Railway is major part of transportation of common man for long journey and also cheapest amongst all. Already there is high inflation and prices of daily needed items reaches to sky. This hike adds inflation in both manner i.e by passengers hike and freight hike as well.
Now also monsoon is delayed which affects the production of crops and other goods. It will make the common man impossible to live. Instead of hike they could have considered other measures such as FDI, improving efficiency of railway transport, avoid accidents etc.
- RE: Is rail fare hike justified? -Uttam Gulia (07/09/14)
- Rail fare hike is justified because India has no money to spent and Government treasure is blank. Though the percentage of present rail fare should have been less but its okey. it is a right time to put some hard step. It will bring some relief in inflation and this rail fare increment will be helpful to bring the rail of Indian Economy on the track which was derailed in the ruling of Congress .
Thank you - RE: Is rail fare hike justified? -Uttam Gulia (07/09/14)
- Rail fare hike is justified because India has no money to spent and Government treasure is blank. Though the percentage of present rail fare should have been less but its okey. it is a right time to put some hard step. It will bring some relief in inflation and this rail fare increment will be helpful to bring the rail of Indian Economy on the track will be derailed in the ruling of Congress .
Thank you
- RE: Is rail fare hike justified? -Narendra (07/08/14)
- I think Rail fare hike is justified , but it should not be applied on all class of passengers & trains , the steepest hike should be done in premium trains like (rajdhani,shatabdi) & in AC coaches of all normal trains .Fare hike for rest of the class of passengers should be minimal . Freight charges should have not been increased by 6.5% because it directly impacts common man by increases the inflation on all essential commodities. Railways running in loss does not have funds to carry out its ambitious projects like bullet train ,Wifi facilities, Hitech railway stations , New railway tracks etc. We need to strength the adminisatration in order to improve operational efficiency , Need to curb corruption in railway , More efficient flying squad to catch people not travelling with valid tickets, Public-private parternship to implement ambitious projects which lacks funds.These types of measures could have avoided the steepest hike in Fares.
- RE: Is rail fare hike justified? -Deepa Kaushik (07/08/14)
- It is really not fair on the part of NDA government to show up hike in the rail fare. The government started with a lot many promises of creating the comfort zone for common man. But that is not an equable matter to accept the betterment in the living at the cost of the expense of common man.
Rail fare and for that reason every fare is hiked at every budget with the explanation of meeting the previous losses and creating new comfort for the railway travel. But this has never been visualised so far with any government. It is always a fake excuse and an unreliable explanation of extracting some easy money making holes on the pocket of poor middle class.
People will lose their faith on the NDA government if they keep their moves in a similar way of hiking the basic requirement of the common man. This is not an efficient governance as India needs to raise the living of the average Indian citizen prior to developing the business class and International trade relations.
Creating a further hike in the rail fare would be a heavy matter for the poor and lower middle class who prefer the rail as the most economic mode for the long travel. With a hike on this fare, people will have to carry on this burden, as they wouldn’t have any other alternate option for long travel with comparatively less time.
