No proposal to hike rail fares, says MoS for Railways Manoj Sinha

Ahead of the presentation of the Rail Budget in Parliament, Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha on Saturday said there was no proposal at present to increase rail fares.

Speaking on the sidelines of a function to flag off the tri-weekly Lucknow-Kathgodam Express, he said it was not right to discuss the rail budget in advance.

"The rail budget will be discussed in Parliament. It is not right to discuss it in advance", he told reporters.

To a question, he said, "There is no proposal as of now to hike rail fares. Asked as to what was in store for Lucknow in the Budget to be presented on February 26, Sinha, a Lok Sabha member from Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh, said, "Lucknow will have a lot in the Budget but it would not be in the fitness of things to disclose it in advance.

Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu had recently said that reduction in passenger fares is unlikely to happen although diesel prices have come down.

"Railway recovers only 50 per cent of the passenger cost it bears. There is already a huge element of subsidy provided to passengers in the fares...Railway services will have to be modernised to meet people's expectations and the network needs to be expanded. There is a huge demand-supply gap and finance is major constraint...the point is how to raise resources", he had said.