Fri. Mar 29th, 2024
Indian Railways

After the success of the ‘Give-It-Up’ campaign on cooking gas subsidy, the government is now planning to launch similar campaign for rail fares. The campaign will give passengers an option to voluntarily leave the subsidy on tickets. The railways plans to launch the scheme next month.

According to the sources, Indian Railways will offer two slabs of subsidy surrender which may be 50% and 100% of the subsidy amount. Till now the railways bears 43% of the cost of all rail fares even though the state-run transporter attracts a loss of ₹30,000 crore every year in subsidising passenger fares.

Under this campaign, ‘Give-It-Up’ option will be available for tickets booked online or bought from counters which will make passengers aware of the subsidy burden on the fare. With its due effect,  3AC ticket from New Delhi to Mumbai in Golden Temple Express will cost ₹2,750 instead of previous amount ₹1,570 while 2AC by the same train will be around ₹3,990 instead of ₹2,275.

The biggest drain on the railways exchequer is subsidy on suburban travel segment. Suburban passengers pay only 57% of the ticket cost, while the remaining amount is subsidised.

By Bharat