Home » Indian Budget » Budget 2006-2007 » Rail Budget 2006-2007 » AC Class Fare Reduced, Air Conditioned Garib Rath Introduced

Railway Minister Shri Lalu Prasad has announced no increase in passenger fare in the Rail Budget for the year 2006-07 and instead announced reduction of fare for AC first class and second class.

Placing Budget proposals in the Lok Sabha today, Shri Lalu Prasad said that the Railways has planned to rationalize the passenger tariff structure. There will be no increase in passenger fare and instead AC first class and AC second class fare will be reduced by about 18 per cent and 10 per cent respectively. He expressed the hope that restructuring of fare would sharpen the competitive edge of the Railway.

With a view to providing fully air-conditioned but affordable service to passengers in long distance trains, the Railway Minister has also announced to run a fully air-conditioned Garib Rath on a pilot project basis. Initially the superfast AC Garib Rath will run between Delhi-Patna, Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Chennai and Saharasa-Amritsar. The fares on these trains will be about 25% lower than the present AC-3 tier fares. In line with this objective of providing affordable air-conditioned service, we will also make efforts to start fully air-conditioned double decker trains.

The Railway Minister has also announced increase in renewal period of monthly season tickets from 3 days to 10 days for the convenience of daily passengers. The superfast charges applicable on MSTs and QSTs have also been reduced to one-fourth of the current levels.

Source: http://pib.nic.in