Union Railway Minister Mukul Roy on Thursday proposed
partial rollback of rail fares , a day after being sworn-in as new Railway Minister
Addressing the Lok Sabha first time after his appointment as railway minister, Roy said that the proposal to increase hike would impact the common man and that he intended to provide relief by not increasing fares. Accordingly, he announced the rollback of fares for sleeper, sub-urban, AC chair car and AC 3-tier segments. The fare hike in first and second AC fare would stay, he said.
He also committed to launch an aggressive drive to mop up resources for the railways. Roy put on hold the expansion of the Railways board.
Talking about the safety aspect of the railways and keeping in mind the recent accident in which 17 people had died at an unmanned railway crossing, Roy said all unmanned level crossings would be removed soon and that the railways was working towards that goal.
He also said that it was important to run the railways economically and safely and that all the vacancies in the safety areas would be filled up soon. Talking about the positions lying vacant in the railways, he said more than 1 lakh people would be recruited in 2012-13.
Dinesh Trivedi, the former railways minister, was forced to resign a few days after
presenting his budget over the
proposed fare hike .
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